That’s not careless, that’s reckless. The difference, as Loach made clear, is intent.
One doesn’t text whilst driving by accident. It is, however, quite possible to miss a sign or light unintentionally.
Causing death by careless driving, however is a serious crime where I am (cite), but not as serious as death by dangerous driving (http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/death_by_dangerous_driving/).
Does traffic court count as prosecuted? It’s a formal evaluation of a criminal charge (infraction of codified traffic laws) in a court and can lead to a restitution hearing where the DA can assess punitive damages. But there is no jury, and only sometimes a defense lawyer–just you and the judge and maybe spectators who may or may not be related to your case. But nobody’s doing time for a traffic violation.
Dude… It’s time to consider quitting driving.
My post is my cite? 
Ok, I understand the fact that I was on my department’s fatal accident investigation team for several years isn’t enough. How about the statute? (Sorry its not the primary source but the state website sucks, I usually use the books. But that is the actual statute.) From the first line:
[QUOTE=NJSA 2C:11-5]
Criminal homicide constitutes vehicular homicide when it is caused by driving a vehicle or vessel recklessly.
[/QUOTE]
Reckless driving is defined in a different statute as:
So its not a matter of routine or policy, its a matter of law.
No I didn’t. It is very rare that accidents are caused solely by outside failures such as failed brakes or road conditions. Equipment and road conditions are often a contributing factor but rarely the only one. There is almost always some human error as well. That does not mean that if there is a human factor someone is going to be prosecuted criminally.
Reckless: wanton and willful disregard for safety.
Careless: being a bonehead and making a mistake.
Yes. Sometimes it more than deserves criminal prosecution. Sometimes it deserves a traffic summons.
Texting and driving is a reckless and intentional act and has been used to charge people with vehicular homicide. Of course you have to prove the texting was happening at the time of the accident. Which can sound a lot easier than it is.
I’ll give you one example from years ago that I remember well because I know the family. A woman was driving down a 35 mph road. For some reason she did not see the stop sign and blew through an intersection. She T-boned another vehicle killing the driver. The other driver was an off duty Sheriff’s Officer from a neighboring county. He died almost instantly. She was cited for failure to stop at a stop sign and careless driving.
I would not be surprised if some states have that option for a lower charge.
If I may be allowed to quote my own post…
I’m certainly not going to look up every state but I did check one state in which Monty stated he lived in. Just from looking online California appears to have a statute in which someone can be prosecuted for carelessly causing the death of someone with a vehicle. However, it is a misdemeanor (subsection (2)), not a felony. Or in the terms used in my state, not a crime.
Yeah I could have worded that better. 
I think this question should definitely have asked about jurisdiction. It appears that the US has separate traffic courts, but in NZ, offences under the Land Transport Act are heard in the same court as other offences. Careless driving causing injury or death can have a sentence of up to 3 months imprisonment. Then there’s aggravated careless driving, as below
This can be punished by up to 3 years imprisonment or a $10,000 fine.
Prosecutions are common, especially under the first section. Crashes where it can solely be attributed to a mechanical failure are a very small proportion of those that happen, so most crashes where the at fault driver survives are going to be prosecuted.
Sorry for outing you. People make mistakes. On my way home I got hit by a woman who was basically sightseeing, and turned suddenly into a right turn lane I was occupying. Since I was in my car, it was no big deal. If I were on a bike I could have easily been killed or badly injured.
We’ve build cars to try to insulate drivers and passengers from the mistakes of themselves and others. Hard to build a bike like that.
Some cases that have brought about vehicular manslaughter charges around here have involved cars racing on city streets.
Monty, just because someone has been killed, doesn’t necessarily mean that a criminal offence has occurred. There has to be the requirement of dangerous driving, defined in different ways in different jurisdictions. Careless driving usually is not sufficent for a criminal charge, even if death results.
About a year ago, my mother was driving me home from work on a darkened street, and we came to a standard four-way street light intersection.
The light had just turned green, and we were about to move forward into the intersection when I saw something and quickly yelled “STOP!” Mom slammed hard on the brakes.
There was a man on a bicycle who, heedless of the red light, was turning left directly into oncoming traffic, and I mean he was booking it. He wasn’t wearing reflective clothing, he didn’t have a headlight on his bike, and quite frankly there was no way in Hell Mom would have seen him if I hadn’t been there. He quite possibly owes his life to me.
At the time, Mom’s eyesight wasn’t so good. (She has since had both cataracts removed from her eyes, and has 20/40 vision). If the bicyclist had been killed in the accident, quite clearly caused by his own negligence, would Mom have been prosecuted?
Are there laws where you are about how good your eyesight has to be to be allowed to drive? If not, I can’t see any grounds for it.
Like with pretty much everything legal in the US it varies from state to state. In NJ municipal courts deal with traffic offenses. They also deal with lower level criminal offenses such as disorderly persons offenses (misdemeanors) and indictable crimes (felonies) that the superior court decided to pass back down. So typically on court day there will be a lot of traffic tickets, domestic violence simple assault, shoplifting, bad checks, minor drug offenses, criminal mischief etc. No juvenile stuff though. Juvenile offenses (other than minor motor vehicle offenses) are handled in juvenile court.
Racing is considered a serious intentional motor vehicle offense. Here it carries the highest point penalty you can get for a ticket. It is an obvious choice for vehicular homicide.