This tragedy begs a number of questions:
1. Were the victims wearing seat belts? Seat belts do make a difference, and I note that the driver of the livery vehicle in which they were killed walked away with minor injuries, possibly because he was wearing a seat belt and was not thrown around by the impact of the speeding vehicle.
2. What ever happened with the driver of the car that killed the child Gavin Cato. He was 7 or 8 years old and was killed in Crown Heights in 1991 when a frum driver in the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s vehicle escort ran a red light. The death of the child resulted in the pogrom against Lubavitchers in Crown Heights. Last I heard, the driver fled to Israel. Did he ever return? My vague recollection was that because he committed only one traffic violation (running a red light), he would not be charged with vehicular homicide. The reports so far in the Glauber-Acevedo case indicate only that the driver was going at an excessive speed. I personally think that we are too soft on traffic violations, and that a speeder who has an accident that results in a death should be guilty of manslaughter, in the absence of any driving violations of the other vehicle.
Let’s all remember that the facts we have are not complete, and we should not compound a tragedy with an injustice.