What should your punishment be for killing, in a freak accident?

That would be involuntary manslaughter.

But it is because of gross negligence on his part. So while he might be liable for wrongful death in a civil lawsuit, the criminal charge would most likely be a misdemeanor and loss of driving privilege and three years probation.

Legally, probably reckless driving. Or possibly something similar, like “Failure to be aware of conditions”. In either event, not major tickets, a couple of points, but nothing horrible.

Traffic ticket isn’t the problem.

The person has to live with the fact that he contributed to the death of the poor schmuck. That will be a guilt trip forever. Although the fact that the person didn’t die at the scene – but a couple of days later – is somewhat mitigating.

The survivors of the dead guy could theoretically sue in civil court. If they won – which is questionable – that could be devastating.

Not a freak accident. Inattentive driving. Vehicular manslaughter. Pets are to be secured in the vehicle. (at least they are here).

I agree with the two statements above. The person could be charged with secondary vehicular manslaughter. (meaning the person was reckless but no under the influence, like a DUI) As to what does that mean for sentencing, It is different in every state. Like some states give 5 yrs and others give 15 for a DUI, so you figure this is a lesser offense. It really depends on the state that is bringing the charges. But the whole thing about having a stroke 3 days later, may make a huge difference. Especially if the person seemed fine. An autopsy should reveal if it was accident related or if the stroke was well on its way.

Yep negligent homicide’s another. There’s a lot of discretion available for the prosecution. The cop has a point. The fact that the guy was distracted by the struggling dog is certainly a “mitigating circumstance.” If it came down to it, I would fight to avoid serving on the jury.

Reckless homicide.
You either pull over and then take care of the dog, or you let the dog die.
Fumbling around while driving is the wrong thing to do.
The same thing when there is a small animal on the road. At least under German Law, you are supposed to run it over, because an impact is not a danger to you, and braking or swerving would endanger other motorists.

You get behind the wheel, you’re responsible.

Something similar happened in my town yesterday – a guy fell asleep at the wheel and struck another car, hurting the other driver – my co-worker – badly. His situation is currently described as touch-and-go. He is in his 70s. I know the guy who hit him, too; he lives just down the road from me and is a very sweet person. So sad that this happened.

According to the paper no charges have been filed yet.

It’s impossible to determine the outcome as not only do laws vary from state to state, but you’re only as good as your lawyer. Add to that the mood of the judge or if it goes to a jury trial, anything goes.

I don’t care if a tarantula drops on your head. You pull the car over and park before you freak out.

What if the dog only had 3 legs?

Since we’re speculating on an imaginary scenario.

And, um, if a tarantula bit his other leg. And the tarantula was in a box of bananas, at the local market!

I need to know if the spider was male or female.

I don’t care. Pull over and stop.

What if the car only had three wheels?

Concentrate on controlling the car as best you can. If you are going to wreck, try to make a controlled one.

@Dutchess_III: My last question and I think @ibstubro‘s last question are just jokes. Please don’t take them seriously.

Could happen! I’ve known of people who have had a wheel fall off just when a tarantula fell on their head as they accidentally rolled the window up on their dog’s neck! <<<That is a video of when it happened to me.

A person I knew in high school was driving home from school one day and looked to his left for a second because there were a couple of kids playing near the street. At that very moment, a girl rode her bike in front of him from the right. He hit her, didn’t kill her, but she was messed up pretty bad (I don’t know the details).

His life completely changed in a fraction of a second. The thing that really struck me was the sheer amount of luck (or unluck) that was involved in this whole thing. Did I ever look a bit to the left while driving? Of course. Did I ever hit a kid on a bike as a result? No. But the reason I can say that is that a girl just didn’t happen to ride out in front of me. The only thing standing between me and this person I knew was that he was extremely unlucky to have had that happened.

I know it’s tempting to go on about how we would never do something like that because we are 110% on every moment we are driving. But the fact is – we haven’t hit a little girl on a bike (or something similar) just out of luck/chance. We all look one way or the other, sneeze (our eyes close briefly), etc.

I find that in this person’s case,, there were many “victims”, yet nobody to blame. That can be frustrating and scary because it feels like we are living in a world beyond our control, I suppose.

Anyway, how this relates to this question is up to interpretation.

Right @DoNotKnow. From the sound of it your friend was experienced enough to know that kids playing near the road need to be checked out, and he was doing the right thing. What happened to the girl was a true accident.

Even if we are 110% on the road, shit totally beyond your control can happen. I mean, just go look at some videos of wrecks. I estimate that about 10% of them were real accidents…you can’t really anticipate a big rig suddenly flying over the divider wall into your lane. But 90% of them could be avoided if people were paying attention.

Have you ever seen a video where there is a wreck on an ice and snow covered highway…and people just keep plowing into the wreck? Yet, there are a few who do manage to get stopped in time, but there are still people flying around them.