Squirrels can be the worst. They play a
deadly game of chicken with drivers, seemingly timing a desperate
dash across the street, just as you are about to pass them.
I've even hit a squirrel while riding a
bike.
It's a natural reflex to stomp on the
brakes or swerve wildly when you come upon wildlife trying to cross a
roadway. So there needs to be at least some sympathy for Emma
Czornobaj who took her concerns for some roadside ducklings a step or
two too far. She stopped her car in the left lane of a highway near
Candiac Que. in an effort to capture the baby ducks who appeared to
be orphaned.
That was four years ago. Last week, her
act of concern became national news when a jury unanimously convicted
her of two counts of criminal negligence causing death.
She now faces a potential lengthy jail
sentence for that act, because Andre Roy, 50, and his 16 year-old
daughter Jessie were killed when the motorcycle Andre was driving hit
the rear of Czornobaj's Honda Civic at high speed.
Andre's wife Pauline Volikakis was
riding a motorcycle of her own and watched in horror as her husband
and daughter were thrown like rag dolls in the crash.
A horror. A tragedy. A terrible,
preventable, loss of life. But criminal negligence? I have a little
trouble with that.
For one thing, Roy was driving well
above the speed limit at the time. A police investigation suggested
Roy was running at anywhere between 113 km/h and 129 km/h when he
applied the brakes to his bike.
Stopping in the left lane of a highway
is not a very smart thing to do. Not turning on warning flashers
brings this into dumb territory. Trying to herd wild duckings into
one's car while your vehicle is parked on a highway takes this one
level farther.
But criminally negligent? I'm not so
sure.
Volikakis was driving slower than her
husband, and was able to avoid the crash.
That must say something to the finding
of responsibility for the crash.
The urge to do something potentially
dangerous in your car is almost instinctive when you come upon
wildlife.
I grew up on a farm, and have seen
death for a pretty wide variety of animals. Cats, dogs, cattle,
chickens, turkeys, hogs — all have met their demise on our farm at
one time or another. I've shot a lot of gophers in the pasture, and
plinked dozens of sparrows around the chicken run. An elderly black
lab on our farm was a champion mouser, and we kids spent a lot of
time in the summer, turning over fallen logs to expose nests for him.
But when a squirrel, or a family of
ducks crosses the road in front of me, I make emergency avoidance
moves, without thinking. The appearance of a deer or moose anywhere
near the road is cause for a sudden deceleration.
If another vehicle — obviously
speeding — were right behind me at those moments, could these
natural reactions be considered criminally negligent?
These are not the exact facts of the
case for Emma Czornobaj. But reading a news story like this one
brings to mind: “there but for the grace of God . . .”
Czornobaj has her pre-sentence report
set for Aug. 16. Her lawyer is considering an appeal. For Czornobaj
and Volikakis, this sad event has dragged on for four years.
We have to trust the wisdom of the
juries we pick for trials. We need to believe that judges weigh a lot
of factors in sentencing.
Not every duckling that hatches in
spring survives to make the fall migration. Trying to alter that is
vanity.
But not every terrible, avoidable death
on the highway needs to have someone to blame for it. Or maybe it
does.
All told, this is just a terribly sad
event.
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