Missouri Group Wants Tougher Penalties for Vehicle/Pedestrian Accidents

An organization that advocates for walkers and bicyclists in the St. Louis region is pushing for stiffer penalties for drivers who strike pedestrians.

Trailnet wants more to be done to make sober drivers more accountable, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The non-profit points to the deaths of 19-year-old LaTonya Williams and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Jermaine Byrd, who were fatally struck by a car last year while walking on a St. Louis County sidewalk. The driver wasn’t charged.

“It’s really kind of disturbing to us and our organization,” Trailnet executive director Ralph Pfremmer said. “It speaks to how vulnerable everybody is and how the system doesn’t always work in favor of the victim.”

The accident was among several last year involving pedestrians in the St. Louis region in which no one was charged. Nationally, about 5,000 pedestrians are killed by drivers each year, accounting for 15 percent of all traffic fatalities.

Williams and Byrd were walking home from a store when a 19-year-old driver struck them. She told police another vehicle came “flying” toward her, forcing her to swerve, jump a curb, and drive onto the sidewalk. She passed a sobriety test.

Prosecutors chose not to pursue criminal charges, though four traffic tickets were issued to the driver for speeding, failure to drive within a single lane, operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, and driving without insurance. The driver later negotiated an agreement with a county prosecutor that amended the speeding ticket to a nonmoving, illegal parking violation; the other three citations were dismissed. A municipal judge signed off on the file.

“She killed two people,” Pfremmer said. “She was not punished. She didn’t get any points off her license. Where is the justice? There is none.”

St. Louis County Counselor Peter Krane, who oversees municipal court prosecutions, stood by the decisions. He said that because the driver wasn’t charged with a crime, the court didn’t hold her accountable for the deaths. He said she could have been speeding to avoid a head-on collision.

Topics Auto Missouri