Died on a ride, #14, 2010

A tragic story coming out of Ottawa, where a 16-year-old boy riding home from work last week was struck from behind and killed.

Alex Hayes was riding his bike home from his part-time job at a grocery story at about 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, when he was struck from behind by a motorist who did not remain at the scene. In fact, when police stopped the car farther down the road, it was for suspicion of impaired driving, not knowing there had been the earlier collision. Alex's body was not found until three hours later, after his family had reported him missing.

Samira Mohamed Daoud, 40, is facing a dozen charges, including criminal negligence causing death, failing to remain at the scene, driving without a licence, possession of a stolen vehicle and impaired driving. According to a story in the Ottawa Sun, Daoud received a 30-month driving ban in 2006 for drunk driving. Daoud is to appear in court this Friday.

According to a story in the Ottawa Citizen, friends and co-workers are raising thousands of dollars for Alex's mother, partly to help with the funeral. Some of the money is expected to go to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Comments

[Rob]

If the boy wasn't killed instantly and she could have saved him by reporting the incident, she should be charged with second degree murder. She might just as well as shot him with a gun.

[Jason]

I've always thought it odd that generally, we have a separate, much more lenient set of legal systems for crimes that involve motor vehicles. For instance, why do we have a "vehicular manslaughter" charge? we don't have a "knife manslaughter" or "rolling-pin murder" charge. This man should be charged with the same thing as if he got drunk, shot the boy, and left him to die -ie., he would be sitting in prison right now.