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Mom: Ticket Not Enough For Driver Who Killed Her Son

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2009

Gail Manner doesn't understand why the driver who struck her son last summer with a car, killing him, only got a traffic ticket.

Alan D. Danks Jr., 25, was cited for careless driving after he ran into Matthew Manner on June 20 in St. Petersburg.

Danks, of St. Petersburg, has a scheduled court appearance at 11 a.m. Friday.

"I think he should be charged with something to do with the killing of a human being," Gail Manner said. "I think he should pay, not pay, but do some kind of time for killing a human being."

But traffic homicide investigator Mike Jockers said the facts of the case did not support a charge more serious than a traffic infraction. Specifically, they did not support a charge of reckless driving or vehicular homicide because Danks' driving that evening was not reckless, he said.

At about 8:20 p.m., Danks was driving south on 66th Street when the red light in front of him changed to green and went through the intersection, striking 18-year-old Matthew Manner, who was on a bicycle, Jockers said. The cars in the lanes to either side of him had stopped for the red, but Danks' lane was clear, Jockers said.

Jockers said Danks was driving 59 mph in a 45-mph zone – or 14 mph over the speed limit – but speed alone is not sufficient to level a charge of vehicular homicide, he said. If Danks had been weaving through traffic or changing lanes before the collision, he might have been charged with a more serious offense, Jockers said.

"His overall driving pattern did not rise to the level of recklessness, which is what you have to have to prove if you want to charge someone with vehicular homicide," Jockers said. "Speed in and of itself is not reckless."

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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