Coverage of the case of Sian Green, the young British tourist who lost a leg when a cab jumped the curb and sliced off her foot as she was eating a hot-dog at Rockefeller Center two days ago, is typically shallow and decontextualized. Because she is young and cute, all the coverage is about how plucky she is, determined to continue with her life sans a leg. Nothing about what happened to the motorist who hit her (on the sidewalk!) and whether he is facing charges—much less any acknowledgement that out-of-control motorists are a deeply systemic problem in New York City. (See AP, NY Post, Daily Mail) This has actually become a "feel-good" story. A biref rush of reassuring good vibes, we turn the page (excuse me, click on the next link) and move on—and the quotidian carnage continues...

At least the killer was fined something. More than usually happens in New York. A justly outraged opinion from the Toronto Sun, Aug. 22:

Family devastated after driver fined $400 for killing grandmother

TORONTO - A life should be worth more than a $400 fine. Carelessly killing a pedestrian should warrant more than a simple conviction under the Highway Traffic Act.

 

But thanks to a plea bargain, that’s all Ann Wyganowski received Thursday for striking and then running over Fen Shi, a beloved grandmother simply walking along a Bayview Ave. sidewalk on a clear September day last year.

 

"I just can’t believe it," said Shi’s shaken son, John Pan. "The fine is only $400 — for a life. Can you believe that?"

 

Her lawyer even wanted to deny the woman's son from reading aloud his victim impact statement because his client is undergoing counselling and now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. “It’s been tragic for her as well,” her counsel insisted.

 

Through his tears, Shi’s son John Pan was allowed to deliver his statement. "There are so many nights that I woke up from a dream of my mom and then I had to quietly walk to the bathroom, close the door and cry the sadness out of me," he said. "She not only killed my mom, but also injured my whole family."

 

But he was shaking with anger as justice of the peace Alfred Johnston not only accepted the plea deal, but had the nerve to chastise him for saying the driver had "killed" his mom. And then he went further. "The defendant," Johnston opined, "has suffered just as much as the family."

 

No sir, she has not.

 

Their beloved mother and grandmother is dead. Shi, a 75-year-old mother of three, moved here from China in 1999 to help care for Pan's first child. After living with her son and his family for years, she recently moved into an apartment of her own. Active in her church, she was learning Cantonese and had even begun to pick up piano. She was healthy and loved.

 

On the morning of Sept. 10, 2012, she was walking to meet a friend before heading over to visit her son.

 

She never arrived. At 11 a.m., a Toronto Police officer knocked on Pan's door with the horrible news.

 

There is no doubt this was an accident, that the driver never intended to kill that poor woman. While Wyganowski remained silent, her lawyer expressed her remorse. She doesn't deserve to be locked away in jail for years. But a $400 fine?

 

Court heard the 54-year-old vice-president of HZX Business Continuity Planning was turning north out of her chiropractor’s driveway and looking left at the traffic when she struck and then ran over Shi. She continued driving until honking witnesses finally alerted her to what she’d done and she returned to the scene.

 

Wyganowski was charged with careless driving. But to the shock of Shi’s children, Crown attorney Raphael Leong informed them just before Mother’s Day that he was going to accept a deal: The careless driving charge would be dropped in return for her guilty plea to Section 139 (1) of the Highway Traffic Act — failure to yield from a private roadway, which carries a maximum $500 fine.

 

They were justifiably outraged. "We cried. We begged him: What kind of evidence do you need to go through with a trial?” Pan recalled. “But they want to close the case and we have no say."

 

They spent the last few months trying to change his mind. But Leong told them he represents the Crown — not the victims — and they can hire a civil lawyer and sue.

 

"That's not what we want," said the exasperated Pan, a data architect for the education ministry. "My mom got killed. She needs a fair judgment. For the prosecutor, he needs to prevent this from happening again. Every year, so many pedestrians get killed. A $400 fine won’t do anything to change that."

 

But this is assembly line justice, where expediency and saving court time and money is the order of the day. Pan stumbled out of the Old City Hall courthouse, devastated by how little the justice system cared about his innocent mother.

 

"Human life has virtually no value," said Pan. "To us, it’s like he killed our mother a second time and it’s even worse because it’s on purpose."

Contrast the case of Jeff "Free" Luers the "eco-terrorist" who got 10 years after torching SUVs at Oregon dealership. Now, we don't condone burning SUVs, which is a singularly stupid way to protest air pollution, but it does demonstrate how way, way, way, way out of wack things are...

From Gothamist, Sept. 5:

Four Injured After Taxi & SUV Collision Wrecks Midtown Scaffolding

Four people were injured this afternoon after two motorists collided, sending one vehicle careening into scaffolding in midtown Manhattan. According to the NYPD, the yellow cab hit into a 2011 Nissan Pathfinder around 2:50 p.m. at 42nd Street and 1st Avenue; the SUV jumped the curb as a result, striking the nearby scaffolding and causing it to collapse. The NYPD spokesperson says at least one pedestrian was hit by the scaffolding.