[B’ Spokes: If I am reading this right “the community’s general sense of
right and wrong” is that it is perfectly fine to pass a cyclist via the oncoming lane with limited visibility (motorist can’t see past the crest of a hill.). I think we need to get on MVA’s case to provide better instruction if that is indeed the case.]
VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER – COMPARISON OF “GROSS
NEGLIGENCE” THAT IS AN ELEMENT OF VIOLATION OF
OFFENSE DEFINED IN CRIMINAL LAW ARTICLE §2-209 WITH
“CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE”
December 21, 2011
The Honorable Joseph I. Cassilly
State’s Attorney for Harford County
…
The New York court also differentiated between “negligence,”
as used in civil cases, and “criminal negligence”:
Criminal liability cannot be predicated on every
act of carelessness resulting in death ….. The
carelessness required for criminal negligence is
appreciably more serious than that for ordinary
civil negligence[;]the carelessness “must be such
that its seriousness would be apparent to anyone
who share[s] the community’s general sense of
right and wrong”…. Criminal negligence thus
requires “some serious blameworthiness in the
conduct that caused [the death]”… or some
culpable “risk creation” ….