Driver who killed landscaper only gets ticket

Jen Lawson

Friday, March 5, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

A woman who struck and killed a landscaper on Buffalo Drive last month will not face charges any more serious than speeding, which authorities say is further proof that Nevada needs stiffer penalties for motorists who seriously injure or kill pedestrians.

Donna Rohr was driving her PT Cruiser on Feb. 12 along Buffalo Drive just north of Smoke Ranch Road when she swerved to the left to pass a slow-moving car then lost control as she tried to get back into the right lane.

She hit two of the six TruGreen Lawn Care landscapers cleaning up debris in the right travel lane, police said.

Alfredo Godinez, 21, was knocked to the ground. Carlos E. Rodriguez-Baruch, 26, of Las Vegas, hit the Cruiser's windshield and flew forward. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

If this had occurred in a state with a vehicular manslaughter law, Rohr's actions might have led to such a charge.

But in Nevada, drivers who kill pedestrians -- depending on the circumstances -- may be charged with misdemeanor reckless driving or felony reckless driving with substantial bodily harm or death.

If the driver is intoxicated at the time, prosecutors can charge the person with felony DUI.

Police and prosecutors determined Rohr's actions couldn't support any of those charges.

Safe Community Partnership, a transportation safety outreach program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will seek a change in Nevada law in the 2005 Legislature to increase penalties for drivers who seriously hurt or kill pedestrians.

Erin Breen, director of the program, said she was "furious" when she learned that Rohr would just be getting a ticket. She wants to see a law passed that would make such a violation a gross misdemeanor.

"You have to be able to be safe when going about your daily business," she said. "It's needed for reasons just like this."

Rohr was cited for going 60 mph in a 45 zone, Detective Dennis Magill said.

He met with Bruce Nelson, deputy district attorney in the vehicular crimes section, last week to determine if Rohr could be charged with reckless driving.

But for that charge to be appropriate, the driver must commit two traffic violations, such as speeding and weaving in and out of traffic, Nelson said. He determined Rohr was just speeding.

A motorist can be speeding but not driving recklessly, Magill said.

A new law to address the "in-between" cases such as Rohr's -- a charge that would be more substantial than a traffic ticket but not as harsh as a felony -- is needed in Nevada, authorities said.

"In my opinion Nevada has needed this for a while," Nelson said. "Right now if I go through a red light and kill three people I'm still only facing the same penalty I would get if I don't hit anyone."

Drivers might be more careful if they know they will face harsher consequences, Magill said.

"The primary reason why we have traffic laws is to deter drivers from doing dumb things," he said.

The accident involving the landscaping workers is complicated by the fact that the crew didn't follow safety rules, Magill said.

They did not have adequate cones blocking off their work space and did not have a proper barricade plan filed with the city.

Whenever landscapers or other public workers need to block off a road lane for their work they must file a barricade plan with the city or county that shows how they will block off the site and what precautions they will take, police said. Then plan must be approved before the lane can be blocked.

In this incident, the workers only had a few cones set out, police said.

This is considered a contributing factor in the landscape worker's death, Magill said, much like jaywalkers are held at fault when they are hit by a car.

"Some cones or not enough cones -- that's crazy," Breen said. "There should be some reasonable assumption of safety."

Breen first spoke of her desire to get a new law passed when two 13-year-old girls who were crossing a street in Southern Highlands were hit by a car and killed in November.

That driver was charged with failure to yield and expired license plates.

The lack of chargeable offenses is frustrating for police officers too, Breen said.

When she has protested the fact that some drivers don't face more serious charges in cases such as these, "They say, 'give me something to charge them with.' There is nothing."