One man dead, one man free after two trials

Joe O’Brien is finally a free man. About five years ago on a winter night, the pickup he was driving hit and killed a man, Calvin Toal, who was driving a snowmachine.

A jury convicted O’Brien of criminally negligent homicide because he apparently hadn’t cleaned the pickup’s windshield of ice. Prosecutors also said the pickup’s headlights were dim. O’Brien, who was sober that night, admitted his vehicle wasn’t in good shape.

However, Superior Court Judge Eric Smith decided a piece of information shouldn’t be allowed to be heard at trial. Toal was drunk the night the collision took place. The jurors didn’t know that when they made their decision to convict.

O’Brien appealed the decision and a high court agreed with him that Toal’s blood-alchol level should have been part of the testimony.

After three years of waiting for the legal process to go forward, O’Brien got a new trial and was acquitted Monday morning by a new set of jurors.

There are several ways to look at this. What did it matter that Toal was drunk? He was killed because O’Brien didn’t clean his windshield. If a guy drinking in a bar and was shot dead when another patron dropped a pistol on the floor and it went off, wouldn’t the guy who mishandled the weapon face charges? The courts have made it clear in case after case that vehicles are weapons. That’s what the first jury believed, though they didn’t know Toal was drunk.

On the other hand, what was Toal doing on the roadway? If his head was clear, maybe he would have reasoned that he shouldn’t be driving his snowmachine on the highway in the night. He might have made a better decision without alcohol in his system and this whole incident would never have happened. So, apparently the second jury reasoned he was part of the problem.

There’s a uniting theme here: Winter, dark, vehicles and alcohol.

With the recent snow, winter is upon us and drivers must be alert, especially in the darkness.

It’s easy enough, when we’re in a rush, to clear off a small patch of ice to peer out of and take off, hoping the defroster gets the rest soon. And as always, there will be a few snowmachiners out there pressing their luck.

What happened to Toal doesn’t have to happen again. While O’Brien was acquitted, he likely will live with the accident for the rest of his life.

After the first snow, police reported few incidents Monday. Let’s keep it that way.