December 29, 2004
THE THIRD PARTY TO ROE V. WADE:
Trucker sued over crash where fetus was killed (KELLYN BROWN, 12/29/04, Bozeman Daily Chronicle)
An Idaho man already accused of negligently rolling his tractor-trailer last year has now been sued by a woman who lost her unborn child in the accident.Brian Sala, 50, and his employer at the time, trucking company Edwards Brothers Inc., are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Fatima Zukic was 35 weeks pregnant when Sala tipped his tractor-trailer on U.S. Highway 191 on August 7, 2003. [...]
Soon after the accident, the Gallatin County attorney's office filed misdemeanor charges against Sala, accusing him of negligent endangerment for driving too fast and possessing marijuana.
He is not charged in connection with the death of the unborn child. Under Montana law, a fetus is not considered a human life. It says "a human being is a person who has been born and is alive.
Blue America obviously hasn't grasped it yet, but in many ways Conner Peterson was the Man of the Year. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 29, 2004 11:22 AM
spot-on; Saint Conner!
Posted by: JimGooding at December 29, 2004 11:26 AMI think I know the curve where he did that. It's nasty, one of several points along that road where I've seen people almost lose control.
A few days ago there was a discussion of how traffic improvements don't increase safety, and here's a prime example. The road through the Gallatin Canyon is notorious for being perhaps the deadliest in Montana, due in part to a combination of tourists who don't know the road and are paying more attention to admiring the scenery, locals who know the road while setting an excessive pace, and non-local commercial traffic that doesn't take all that into account when going through all the blind curves. Another factor is that it stays icy longer (both day and season) than other roads, with some curves never getting direct sunlight except on summer afternoons.
In the late eighties, they when through and put in all sorts of guardrails, and "Lights on for Safety" signs, which didn't seem to help much. One thing that did help was the NPS vigorously enforcing its 55mph limit with the southern Yellowstone portion of the road, especially with commercial traffic
Even pro-choice feminist Gloria Allred acknowledged that Laci Peterson's fetus was a baby named Conner.
Posted by: Vince at December 29, 2004 10:00 PM