Editorial: Loophole needs to be closed

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

On Feb. 12 Donna Rohr was driving her car when it struck Carlos E. Rodriguez-Baruch, killing the 26-year-old landscaper as he was cleaning up debris in the right travel lane along Buffalo Drive just north of Smoke Ranch Road. Another landscaper who was knocked to the ground, Alfredo Godinez, lived. Metro Police said Rohr was speeding -- traveling 60 mph in a 45-mph-zone -- and that she had swerved to the left to pass a slow-moving car before losing control as she tried to get back into the right lane. Despite the evidence the police gathered, last week the Clark County District Attorney's Office decided not to pursue charges against Rohr for either misdemeanor reckless driving or felony reckless driving with substantial bodily harm or death. Instead, Rohr only will be issued a traffic ticket for speeding.

Granted, there were extenuating circumstances in the Rohr case. The landscaping crew apparently didn't follow safety rules, such as placing cones in the road to properly block off where they were working, and didn't have a barricade plan filed with the city. While it might seem surprising more serious charges weren't leveled against Rohr, the district attorney's hands were tied. Bruce Nelson, the deputy district attorney of the vehicular crimes section, says that in order to be charged with reckless driving under Nevada law, the driver must commit at least two traffic violations. Nelson said two violations -- such as speeding and weaving in and out of traffic -- would have to occur for charges to be brought, and that he determined Rohr was only speeding.

Erin Breen, director of Safe Community Partnership, a transportation safety outreach program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Sun reporter Jen Lawson that she was "furious" upon learning that Rohr would only be receiving a ticket. We can't say that we blame her. Excessive speeding alone should be enough of a factor to warrant something much harsher than just a speeding ticket when a driver kills a pedestrian, but that can't happen until the Nevada Legislature passes a vehicular manslaughter law.

Nelson acknowledges that there needs to be a new law to address the "in-between" cases, such as Rohr's. The Nevada Legislature should close this loophole, a change that should send a clear message that speeding that results in someone's death will be treated as a serious crime. It's a change that can't happen soon enough on Las Vegas' streets, which seem to be getting more and more dangerous as drivers speed excessively.