Posted on 05/26/2005 9:09:09 AM PDT by m1-lightning
Flowers and a melancholy note from grieving family members wilted in the rain on a telephone poll at the corner of Nesper Street and Ryan Avenue in Mayfair yesterday, just a few yards from where a young mother was fatally injured last month.
Sarah McGinley, 18, was pinned by an out-of-control car on her fiance's front lawn on April 17, just seconds after she tossed her 1-year-old daughter to safety. She died from her injuries a few hours later.
Yesterday morning, the District Attorney's Office announced it was filing charges against the driver, Megan Miller, 15, and her father, Richard Miller, 46.
With her father alongside her, Megan Miller was practicing driving in the parking lot of Abraham Lincoln High School when the car crashed through a fence, sped across an intersection and soared up the lawn, hitting McGinley. Miller did not have a learner's permit or a driver's license.
The teen is charged with being involved in an accident involving death or personal injury while not being properly licensed, and will be tried in juvenile court.
Her father is being charged with involuntary manslaughter and homicide by vehicle. He could face up to 12 years in prison, said D.A. spokeswoman Cathie Aboo-kire.
Both father and daughter surrendered to the police accident-investigation division yesterday afternoon, said the family's attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr.
"It is an impossibly difficult time for them," Perri said. "They have nothing but grief for McGinley's family."
The Millers are expected to have separate preliminary hearings within the next week, Perri said.
In both cases, "I think the judge will evaluate the situation and see it's nothing more than an accident. She lost control of the vehicle and was unable to stop what happened. It's a shame," he said.
Local criminal-defense attorney A. Charles Peruto said he believes that juvenile court will be kind to Megan Miller. "The most likely outcome is that they will defer adjudication. They'll leave her in limbo until she's 18 and then wipe her record clean," Peruto said.
The reason, he said, is that as a "young, nonindependent person," she was just following her father's instructions to practice driving.
District Attorney Lynne Abraham viewed the Millers' accident different from Peruto. She cited Pennsylvania law stating that drivers must obtain learner's permits before they can possess a driver's license. "Then and only then may you get behind the wheel of a lethal vehicle and drive the car," she said.
Abraham also faulted Richard Miller for allowing his daughter to drive his 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis, even though they were in a deserted parking lot. If Miller had denied his daughter a driving lesson, "that would have prevented a young mother from dying, and a child from being orphaned for her entire life."
McGinley's daughter, Victoria Wagner, is being cared for by her fiance and his parents.
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Here are some other thoughts. This article (the one I'm posted on now :) ) has a lot more info though.
idiocy... sometimes and accident is just an accident.
cite him for allowing her to drive, but geez...they didnt mean to kill anyone
No
But I would like to see additional charges against the DA herself in the interests of justice ...
Do you feel equally bad for the father and daughter as well as the victim?
No
The victim was not responsible for the crime that led to her death.
I feel badly for them, however, it was irresponsible to allow the daughter to drive without even a learner's permit (not that a learner's permit would've prevented the accident necessarily). Not only was it irresponsible, but it is illegal. His reckless judgment contributed to the young mother's death and while I don't think he should serve twelve years in prison, I do think that he should be punished. A plea is likely and will hopefully mete out the "right" amount of justice.
Not equally bad, but I get the point.
IMHO, criminally; the teen should forego a driver's license and be on probation until age of majority. The father should face the same charge as he would for just allowing his daughter to drive without a permit, and suffer the appropriate punishment. The death was an accident that not even a permit would have helped avoid.
Civil damages should provide for the orphaned child through college.
They were in a parking lot. Traffic laws do not apply. The father could be charged with reckless endangerment or manslaughter.
No an accident is when a person has no control of a problem.
A person who drives (aims) a car across a persons lawn and kills a person commits murder.
Brake on the left, gas on the right!!!
The girl cannot be denied a driver's license when she reaches 16 because she broke no traffic laws.
Is that what happened?
What, the father didn't have time to reach over and turn the ignition off? He couldn't take the car out of gear? He couldn't tug on the wheel and miss the woman?
What was he doing while the car crashed into a fence, crossed an intersection, and soared up the lawn?
All that said, I agree with the people who call it an accident.
I respectfully disagree. This is no more an 'Accident' than handing a loaded, cocked weapon to an initiated, unaware juvenile - And we are all too familiar with the potentially lethal outcome of that idiocy.
The father was skirting a logical law, one made to ensure that anyone getting behind the wheel of a potentially lethal machine, posses the requisite knowledge about it operation and control. IMO he is guilty of manslaughter and the juvenile is innocent in her reliance on her father that this was a safe way to learn to drive.
Yeah, here in Virginia, Maryland and DC kids are dying left and right.
These parents get them cars and they don't even have experience...
You need time on the road, hours clocked, tick-y marks saying that you've encountered almost anything.
Well my opinion is biased as I think teenagers are stupid. : D
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