Two months in jail for killing cyclist

The man who killed a cyclist with the Otesha Project last year has been sentenced to two months in jail and fined $1,000.

I posted on Jason Donald Dickison earlier this year. He was the Meductic, N.B. truck driver who struck a member of the Otesha Project, an Ottawa-based group that makes presentations about environmental sustainability. The project members ride from place to place to demonstrate responsible transportation. They were on the highway between Saint John and Frederiction last Sept. 16 when Andrew Wolf, 23, of New York, was thrown 60 metres to his death after Dickison hit his back tire.

According to the Canadian Press report, Dickison had spent more than 13 consecutive hours behind the wheel of his transport truck before the accident. The $1,000 fine was for exceeding hours of service under the New Brunswick Motor Vehicle Act. The two months in jail, which BTW, he will be allowed to serve intermittently on weekends, was for his guilty plea on driving without due care and attention.

According to the news report, the Crown attorney told the court that the cyclists were in plain view and it was clear and sunny. There was really no excuse for this death. Two months doesn't seem like much of a consequence, esp two months that can be served on weekends.

Comments

[gingerbeard]

Cyclists are not viewed as legitimate road users by those who enforce the laws, or our society at large. Thus the death of a cyclist caused by a legitimate road user, is viewed as acceptable.

Had he hit a pedestrian, there would have been a bigger public outcry, had he hit another car and killed the driver, poof goes his license and a good jail term to match.

But he hit a cyclist, much like hitting a deer, its just running into a obstacle that should not be on the road anyhow.

I mean really is killing someone with a vehicle though carelessness and reckless disregard for the rules really a good reason to impair this driver from continuing his job driving a truck for more then the appropreate number of hours a day?

[Frank Xavier]

Unfortunately, unless the highway traffic act is changed to move the death of a cyclist or a pedestrian into a new class, this type of sentencing will persist because there is no basis for other sentencing. One only need look at the recent sentencing of (2) brothers who were racing each other on Hwy 50 near Bolton in 2007. http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/569131--crash-victims-families-in-no-mood-to-forgive

In the world of sentencing for highway traffic act offences this is about as tough as it gets when automobiles are involved. Pedestrians and cyclists are way down on the sentencing scale especially when car or truck drivers "don't see them". It is sad but thats the state of highway justice at this time. Once upon a time, the driver of the motorized vehicle might have been lynched...but that was when pedestrians still ruled the roads...

[Steve Fitzpatrick]

That is absolutely insane. even having a couple of drinks and getting behind the wheel has a far more dire consequence. This guy killed another person by his actions. That's motor manslaughter and He gets two months for driving over the legal time limit? Where was the judges head?

[Ryan]

Wow, and just think back to the outcry and how people wanted that cyclist who hit the pedestrian in Toronto to serve a few months to a couple of years in jail, yet you kill someone and it's $1000 + 2 months (unlikely he'll serve 2 months).

This isn't anything new of course. TO Star put out an article pointing out two different incidents when motorists killed pedestrians, and all they received were fines of $500 & $1000 with no jail time.

[clasher]

Vehicular manslaughter should result in the immediate and permanent life-time ban on owning a car and having a licence. I don't care if it's a trucker or someone that lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

[Frank Xavier]

To Gingerbread, pedestrians don't get any different treatment than cyclists when it comes to getting run over/down...and the associated Highway Traffic Act consequences. Bicyclists and pedestrians are in lock step. It is all about the supremacy of the automobile in the environment. Once upon a time, it was not so but that is the way it is..unless voters make a major issue out of it. When one looks at the actuarial facts, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists for that matter represent a very small slice of the motorized mayhem which goes on year in and year out. As a bicyclist who has logged 10's of 1000s of kilometers on the roads since I ventured out at the age of 9, Watch your back, your sides and the front and you up your odds of not becoming a fatality statistic. After all there are only a few folks out there who might do you in...just don't win the reverse lottery.