Even if hitting the pedestrian per se turns out to have been just a tragic accident that was the pedestrian's fault,* continuing on three miles sounds like hit and run to me. If you wanted to prosecute him, that might be the charge.
on a rollN8N Yet some (San Diego) are using them even though they're not profitable, yet they save money on dispatching cops and fire trucks to broadside collisions. The intersections here ALL have lower accident rates...
I think it would be safe to further posit that driving around with most of a dead guy on or stickin' through your windshield is prima facie indication that the presence of mind needed to drive a car is no longer with you, regardless of whether it was your fault that the deceased came to be in that position.
I'm sure it will incite, if not necessarily enlighten, another round of the ever more important debate over how to determine when it's time for an individual old person to stop driving.
I'm sure Law and Order or suchlike will take you up on the offer before long. There is a philosophical question about what good would be served by charging what seems to be a somewhat wandering-minded person of extreme age after an apparent accident with no evident malice or intent or arguably even negligence.
What would society or any person learn or gain from his prosecution?
It's possible that they may have to charge him with a crime or at least a major infraction just to have some legal pretext for revoking his license, if he doesn't voluntarily surrender it; dunno about that.
--Joe
* I don't see much about the exact situation and the pedestrian's behavior. Investigators may well choose to look into all this before the DA's office draws conclusions about the disposition of the case. Conceivably the guy came out of nowhere and none of us could have reacted in time. However, I daresay we'd all stop, render aid, and call the authorities, rather than proceeding unaware of (or at least in a deep fugue state from) the presence of a dead person in the windshield.
