Hit-and-run suspect says a smartphone app caused him to hit a pedestrian without realizing it

[Cali_Democrat]

Hit-and-run suspect blames smartphone app, police say
11:30 PM EDT May 22, 2012

PLAISTOW, N.H. -

A hit-and-run suspect said a smartphone app caused him to hit a pedestrian without realizing it, police said.

John Sheehan, 30, was downloading the application when he hit a man walking on the shoulder of Forrest Road in Plaistow on Sunday night, police said.

The 29-year-old victim was rushed to Lawrence Hospital before being flown to Boston. He was listed in critical condition Tuesday.

Police said they found and arrested Sheehan on Monday.

Witnesses said they heard the sound of the impact from inside their home.

"We were watching TV, heard a loud bang, and looked out the window and saw the van accelerating away," Sandie Peabody said.


Read more: http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/Hit-and-run-suspect-blames-smartphone-app-police-say/-/9857858/13678654/-/hgbrhz/-/index.html?hpt=ju_bn4

[Robb]

1. That is an interesting defense.

Hit and run, serious as hell. Texting (or whatever) while driving, serious but probably not as serious.

I eagerly await DU's legal minds on this.

[unblock]

5. more of an "explanation" than a "defense".

in that it doesn't really do anything to mitigate his guilt.

[Robb]

10. Is there anything about intent in hit-and-run cases?

In other words, is it hit-and-run if you genuinely don't know you hit someone? Or is it worse if you hit someone, know it, and flee?

I have no idea.

[unblock]

14. well i'm not a lawyer, so you may well be right. however,

and i'm sure it varies by state, but there are probably several laws regarding "hit-and-run". the biggest difference among them i would think relates to whether or not there was intent in the "hit", rather than the "run" (!)

presuming the "hit" was accidental or negligent, or in any event not planned, it seems to me rather bad law to let people who fail to brake when they hit someone to gain an advantage by fleeing the scene. i would think that evidence of braking would be just about the only thing that would prove that the person knew they were about to hit someone and therefore that most likely knew they did in fact hit someone and therefore there was intent in the "run". so if there are no brake marks, you'd be better off fleeing and hoping to get away with it.

better law would rely not on the actual driver's intent, but on whether or not a reasonable person would know they had hit someone.

which i why i took the texting explanation as doing nothing to mitigate guilt -- a reasonable person would not be so distracted as to be oblivious to having hit someone, especially if there was a loud enough noise that people inside houses heard it.

[99Forever]

24. Didn't work out so well for Amy Senser.

That was her defense.

Details, if you are interested:

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_20701436/amy-senser-hit-run-guilty-verdict-should-stand

[Robb]

27. Thanks for the link. It looks like a previous case

...cited by the defense is as/more interesting:

Before the trial and in his motion for a new trial, Nelson argued that a precedent case, State v. Al-Naseer, the Minnesota Supreme Court established that a defendant in a criminal vehicular homicide case must know at the time that she had struck a person or vehicle.

The Supreme Court overturned the conviction in the Al-Naseer case after finding reasonable doubt that the man knew he had struck a person or car....

..."Defendant essentially made these same arguments in her motion to dismiss for lack of probable cause and those arguments were rejected by this court," the prosecutor wrote. She went on to note that in the Al-Naseer case, experts for the state conceded the man could have been asleep when he crashed, but "there was absolutely NO evidence that the Defendant Senser was asleep at the time of the crash."

All interesting stuff. If the victim dies I suppose this would apply; probably not as high a bar if he doesn't.

[XemaSab]

26. When I hit a sparrow or a squirrel I know about it

If you're so out of it that you can hit a person and not be aware of it, then you shouldn't be driving.

I think the fact that he was faffing around on his phone makes it exponentially worse.

[slackmaster]

23. Any halfway decent software license agreement addresses this kind of thing

Generally, the user assumes all responsibility for his own stupidity.

[CreekDog]

2. Seems reasonable, because iphone navigation really is kind of buggy

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Did the app also cause him to accelerate away?

[Bolo Boffin]

11. If it's the "Better Call Saul" app, maybe so. n/t

[SheilaT]

4. Dowloading an app.

Did the phone somehow take control of his brain and force him to do this while driving?

There should be some extra penalties attached to these kinds of events. There is NOTHING important enough to be looking at a cell phone instead of looking at the road and paying attention to driving.

[rocktivity]

6. He was downloading an application when he was supposed to be driving?

GPS?


rocktivity

[Solly Mack]

7. I tend to hear all the usual & odd noises when I am driving.

How do you hit a body and not know it?



Especially when:

"Witnesses said they heard the sound of the impact from inside their home."

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Not only that

There was significant damage to the vehicle.

[gratuitous]

8. Good news, Mr. Sheehan! There's an app for that, too

We like to call it "jail."

[Ikonoklast]

12. End Of Thread.

[onehandle]

13. I downloaded 300MB of apps in my car last week.

I had started on a multi-state drive and needed to add maps to my GPS app on my iPhone.

I kicked myself for not downloading them the night before. I felt pretty dumb.

I pulled into a parking lot, started the download, and waited for 10 minutes for the app to update.

Now, I don't feel so dumb.

[Demoiselle]

15. I have an app idea for my car...

I would love to have a sign on my roof...an electric sign of some sort (neon would be nice) that would flash the message of my choice to oncoming cars with the simple push of a button. For this case it would say "GET OFF YOUR GODDAMN PHONE!"
If the sign faced backwards as well, It could say "STOP TAILGATING!"

And so forth.

[jp11]

17. For $43 dollars you can have one that fits in your rear window.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ROADMASTER-SCROLLING-LED-CAR-MESSAGE-SYSTEM-SIGN-/300712518584#ht_3826wt_1164

[Demoiselle]

19. Oh MY! I am going to give this serious consideration. Thanks!

[tkmorris]

16. Mr. John Sheehan, 30, is completely full of crap

This sounds like the sort of excuse an 11 year old would offer. It's rather embarrassing Mr. Sheehan never grew up.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

18. boop boop.....

"You're a fucking dumbass"....boop boop.

[Ruby the Liberal]

20. I remember an old Law & Order episode that bugs me to this day.

Guy killed 3 pedestrians while driving drunk. Plot setup was that he accellerated into them as opposed to trying to avoid them. They had him on Murder 2 but at the end, he got 5 years for DUI manslaughter. The whole point of the episode was that they were using DUI as a means of getting a lighter sentence, where if he did this sober, he would have gotten life in prison.

[Poll_Blind]

22. Oh maaan! That's messed up.

I don't watch these crime/law shows but that is an unusual twist.



PB

[slackmaster]

21. Sounds more like an ID10T error to me

29 years in IT.

[Ruby the Liberal]

25. PEBSAK

Yup.

[slackmaster]

28. ...Or a failure of a critical mechanical part - The nut behind the wheel.