Deputy kills 2, 1 in critical cond.

[arielmoon]

How very unfortunate for everyone involved!

I am glad they took the deputy from behind the wheel.

[Eden]

did they really though.... they took away his gun and his patrol car, but from what the article says, he probably still has his private license.... unless they expect to make him serve summonses by taking the bus.... Perhaps they should have demoted him and made him serve as a bicycle patrol officer.... (and never get his drivers license back! I totally believe that if you kill/maim negligently with a car you should lose the right to drive forever)

[Zen]

He still has a job with a $55,600 salary.
That's not punishment to me.

[solobiker]

That is just wrong.

[tctrek]

I like the idea of making him work on a bicycle. He can be out there thinking about someone falling asleep and killing him. When you are sleepy and behind the wheel of a car, you darn sure know it and can take the opportunity to stop before you fall completely asleep... to keep driving in that condition is criminal.

[kenyonchris]

did they really though.... they took away his gun and his patrol car, but from what the article says, he probably still has his private license.... unless they expect to make him serve summonses by taking the bus.... Perhaps they should have demoted him and made him serve as a bicycle patrol officer.... (and never get his drivers license back! I totally believe that if you kill/maim negligently with a car you should lose the right to drive forever)

Uh, being a bike officer is NOT a demotion. In fact, it is a PROMOTION.

In the state of Texas, if the cop was found guilty or convicted of manslaughter (which is what this would fall under in THIS state if he recklessly or negligently caused the death of those cyclists) he would LEGALLY no longer be a cop. I am NOT saying that that the death of ANYONE by ANYONE else is not tragic, it is. I am not saying that he was not at fault, I don't know that. But unless a judge and jury found him guilty of it (and, trust me, cops are not immune to both criminal and civil litigation JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE) he has the right to his freedom just like everyone else. Now, if it were MY department, I doubt he would still be employed for whatever policy violation he committed (we can break traffic laws when responding to calls, even if we are NOT running code with lights and sirens, as there are some times that that is necessary) but I didn't read anywhere that he was responding to a call. If he was typing on his computer, operating a cell phone, or just driving like crap in general, he would have been violating policy in my department and be subject to being fired for it regardless of the outcome of criminal and or civil court.

I cycle in the city, I drive in the city, and I am a cop in the city. There are risks associated with all three. Terrible, terrible accidents happen. Cops are human, they make driving errors just as doctors, lawyers and indian chiefs do. We DO talk on our cell phones, consult our computers for dispatch information and drop the dang radio handset and have to fish for it. We swat at bees. And I dare say that every single one of us are aware of the risks we take to ourselves and those we are trying to protect just in the performance of our jobs.

It isn't my job, nor do I have the desire, to defend this particular cop in this particular incident, hopefully if he was negligent, he will suffer the consequences (and there is a difference, legally, between KNOWINGLY, RECKLESSLY, and NEGLIGENTLY) professionally, and, if necessary, criminally. It can't bring back the lives he took, and that is a shame for all involved. Some corrupt departments may protect their own to such an extent, I guess, but with liability being what it is today, I can't imagine that being the case.

MY heart goes out to the cyclists, the families, and the cop who hit them (unless he KNOWINGLY hit them, which I didn't see any evidence of). There before the grace of God go I. And, as you guys are all human here, I hope you never turn around to see why your kid is crying and take your eyes off the road for a minute and hit someone. I hope you never talk on your cell phone, change the CD, swat at a fly, eat a cheeseburger, or spill a cold drink on your lap and mow over someone walking on the shoulder in your moment of inattention. Those things happen, if it happened to me I would NEVER be the same, regardless of whether I were in my personal car or in my patrol vehicle, trying to hurry to help someone in the night. You wouldn't have to take my gun and badge away to make that happen.

[salsabike]

Well said, Chris.

[PamNY]

And, as you guys are all human here, I hope you never turn around to see why your kid is crying and take your eyes off the road for a minute and hit someone. I hope you never talk on your cell phone, change the CD, swat at a fly, eat a cheeseburger, or spill a cold drink on your lap and mow over someone walking on the shoulder in your moment of inattention. Those things happen,

You make a good point, but you should have left out the cellphone and the cheeseburger. I would only use my phone while driving in a true emergency, and I certainly wouldn't eat a sandwich.

Pam

[kenyonchris]

You make a good point, but you should have left out the cellphone and the cheeseburger. I would only use my phone while driving in a true emergency, and I certainly wouldn't eat a sandwich.

Pam

Trust me, you are in the minority. Lots of people eat a cheeseburger while talking on the phone while in the car. I can't stop someone for multitasking while driving, but I see it ALL the time.
Sometimes even burritos.

[Eden]

Trust me, you are in the minority. Lots of people eat a cheeseburger while talking on the phone while in the car. I can't stop someone for multitasking while driving, but I see it ALL the time.
Sometimes even burritos.

I too never, never use a cell phone while driving and certainly wouldn't eat a cheeseburger... I take driving very seriously and I still think anyone who kills out of negligence, whether they fall asleep, are rummaging through a bag or even comforting a crying child (ask MMQFC if it makes here feel any better that the driver that ran a light and hit her was tending to a baby - NO, if you need to do something distracting like that PULL OVER) should lose their license permanently. I know at that point its a little late, but it sure will stop them from multi-tasking while they drive ever again.

(btw I didn't mean to imply that bike cop was a demotion, but rather that if they felt they needed to demote him they could reduce his rank/salary, but a better job for him to do than to sit at a desk and file evidence would be to be put on bike patrol)

Honestly I don't care what profession the guy was in - he did something dangerous and negligent in a car that resulted in two deaths. He shouldn't keep his license. As for his gun.... he didn't do something unsafe with that.... I don't see the need for him to have to turn it in, unless the position that they gave him means he is no longer entitled to carry it.

I don't think police are particularly responsible for dangerous drivers. Their hands are pretty tied - they can't do usually do anything until after there has been an incident and our laws and punishments are very, very weak. We have too easily accepted cars as a way of life, rather than than a serious privilege that can have serious consequences if abused.

[kenyonchris]

I too never, never use a cell phone while driving and certainly wouldn't eat a cheeseburger... I take driving very seriously and I still think anyone who kills out of negligence, whether they fall asleep, are rummaging through a bag or even comforting a crying child (ask MMQFC if it makes here feel any better that the driver that ran a light and hit her was tending to a baby - NO, if you need to do something distracting like that PULL OVER) should lose their license permanently. I know at that point its a little late, but it sure will stop them from multi-tasking while they drive ever again.

(btw I didn't mean to imply that bike cop was a demotion, but rather that if they felt they needed to demote him they could reduce his rank/salary, but a better job for him to do than to sit at a desk and file evidence would be to be put on bike patrol)

Honestly I don't care what profession the guy was in - he did something dangerous and negligent in a car that resulted in two deaths. He shouldn't keep his license. As for his gun.... he didn't do something unsafe with that.... I don't see the need for him to have to turn it in, unless the position that they gave him means he is no longer entitled to carry it.

I don't think police are particularly responsible for dangerous drivers. Their hands are pretty tied - they can't do usually do anything until after there has been an incident and our laws and punishments are very, very weak. We have too easily accepted cars as a way of life, rather than than a serious privilege that can have serious consequences if abused.

Are you kidding me? I am totally responsible for dangerous drivers. I stop dangerous drivers that are weaving, speeding, failing to signal, drunk, stoned, or inattentive. If I waited for them to crash, I wouldn't be doing my job. In fact, most accidents are just that...inattention. I put it on my report more than anything else. Very few of them are actually dangerous drivers, a great majority have clean driving records. We CATCH the dangerous drivers because they give us reason to. It is the person driving safely that we can do nothing about until an ACCIDENT, hopefully not a tragic one, happens.

Of course, it is not a right to drive a car. If you drink and drive, I snatch that license away and you have to go to court to get it back. And if you are in prison for manslaughter, it is hard to drive a car. I just think that the judicial system judges, not us.

There are a lot of responsible drivers that have accidents. And yes, should be held accountable for it. That is not the issue. The issue is that he is no more or less responsible than the average person in that it was an ACCIDENT.

[tctrek]

MY heart goes out to the cyclists, the families, and the cop who hit them (unless he KNOWINGLY hit them, which I didn't see any evidence of)

He didn't KNOWINGLY hit them because he was asleep and he didn't know anything. But he did KNOWINGLY drive while he was overwhelmingly sleepy. Most people at sometime in their life work long hours, or are on a long road trip and find themselves getting sleepy at the wheel. A reasonable person recognizes that and pulls over and rests. But he kept on driving even though he was sleepy!! IMHO, that's as KNOWINGLY as it gets.

I just don't think this is the same as talking on a cell phone or eating a cheeseburger. Sure, in the blink of an eye you can look away and have an ACCIDENT. You don't have time to react and boom, it's over.

But it takes minutes to fall asleep - you have warning signals that sleep is about to take you over. You roll down your window, turn up the radio, drink coffee, try to prevent yourself from going to sleep. But there comes a time, maybe a minute or two before you actually fall asleep that you KNOW that it is inevitable, that you can't fight it anymore. That's when you pull over. You just don't keep driving when you reach that point.

[snapdragen]

But it takes minutes to fall asleep - you have warning signals that sleep is about to take you over.

Not really, and not for all people. I've known people that can fall asleep in seconds, one friend in particular can drop off without warning. Yes, it's happened while we were in the car, I realized what had happened, woke him up and had him pull over so I could drive.

[tctrek]

Not really, and not for all people. I've known people that can fall asleep in seconds, one friend in particular can drop off without warning. Yes, it's happened while we were in the car, I realized what had happened, woke him up and had him pull over so I could drive.

That brings up an interesting point... should someone who knows they can fall asleep in seconds without warning take extra special care not to drive when they are tired? It's like, if you have bad vision you know not to drive without your glasses. Why tempt fate and make a careless decision to drive when you haven't had enough rest?

[Eden]

If they are narcoleptic (meaning they can fall asleep at any time without warning) I think it falls under the category of epilepsy and they probably should not be driving at all.....