General Road and Highway Discussion

[ijmorlan]

WRPS say there is almost nothing they can charge the driver with because it happened in a parking lot. I guess it's ok to mow down pedestrians as long as you aren't on the road 

If only they weren't restricted to just charging the driver with stuff in the HTA. 


Assault

• 265 (1) A person commits an assault when
  • (a) without the consent of another person, he applies force intentionally to that other person, directly or indirectly;
    

Is there evidence it was intentional? If not, then the above definition does not apply.

However, it seems obvious to me that criminal negligence should apply, and should apply to almost any situation where a motionless person is injured by a moving vehicle (and, obviously, many situations where a person in motion is injured by a moving vehicle, but I want to concentrate on this situation). I find it very hard to believe that the law actually for real doesn’t have anything in it which would allow throwing the book at the driver. The problem is the special treatment of motor vehicle operators. What would happen if I walked down the sidewalk idly swinging my baseball bat and just happened to whack somebody?

More generally, we have too many specific laws about specific things. For example, there doesn’t need to be a law specifically on cyberbullying, if judges properly apply existing concepts of harassment. “With a computer” stuck in front of something doesn’t turn it into something fundamentally different, and neither should “with a car”.