Only a small fraction of dangerous driving behaviors qualify as recklessness. Why bother writing and lobbying for a bill that fixes only a small part of the problem?
We considered seeking a law that would empower law enforcement officers to issue citations on the basis of probable cause for any crash-causing traffic infraction, but received uniformly negative responses from lawyers and police officials. They feared that allowing officers to issue citations for a large number of incidents not witnessed by the officers would likely result in a a large number of cases that would not hold up in court. This would increase delays and costs in an already overbooked and financially strapped court system, as well as causing stress and inconvenience for innocent drivers mistakenly charged by officers in the field. Defining the new offense in terms of recklessness will greatly limit inappropriate prosecutions and inappropriate exercise of power by officers. We believe that vehicular assault of a bicyclist or pedestrian, as defined in HB 88, will nonetheless apply to many of the egregious cases of deadly driving that currently go without prosecution.
