Saturday, February 7, 2015

Bruce Jenner in car wreck, one killed

Today, Bruce Jenner was in an accident that left one person dead and seven injured. He was driving his big giant Cadillac SUV pulling a trailer on Pacific Coast Highway and rear-ended an old Lexus which then crashed into a Hummer. Jenner says he was fleeing photographers. Cops say he wasn't speeding, so "fleeing" may have been the wrong word. There are photos on TMZ of Jenner's Escalade as it struck the Lexus, so yeah, the photographers were there.

Jenner was apparently at fault in the accident. According to Wikipedia:
In the state of California, depending on the degree of recklessness and whether alcohol was involved, a person could be charged with progressively more serious offenses: vehicular manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, or second-degree murder. In any of these cases, the prosecution must prove that the driver committed some wrongful act (which could be a felony, a misdemeanor, an infraction, or a lawful act that might cause death) and that the wrongful act caused the collision and the death of the victim. Murder charges are usually reserved for the most egregious cases, such as a convicted DUI offender who drives recklessly while intoxicated and thereby causes a fatal collision.
If I understand another article I just read on California law, it sounds like Jenner may have been guilty of "ordinary negligence" as opposed to "gross negligence" and would thus be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by probation, up to one year in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.

Being an Olympic gold medalist should help him in court, but being a reality TV star should hurt him.

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