Not the same, but...an anecdote from when I went through driver&#x27;s education.  This was many moons ago and it was meant tongue in cheek, with a bit of truth -- if you hit a pedestrian to the point they are severely injured, you better hope they don&#x27;t survive.<p>Thinking seems to be -- A car versus a pedestrian (or cyclist) unless a glancing blow is going to do a lot of damage to the ped&#x2F;cyclist.  Personal liability could be <i>huge</i> in the case of injury, much more so (potentially) than wrongful death.<p>We see this commonly in the Bay Area in motorist killing a cyclist, the criminal penalty (if any) is often not as severe as it should be.<p>(The above said, even when the motorist hits and the ped&#x2F;cyclist survives, getting justice can be long and involved -- classic case is the Los Gatos&#x2F;Los Altos business man who severely impacted a cyclist who was permanently injured -- <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mercurynews.com&#x2F;ci_20884491&#x2F;saratoga-businessman-robert-schiro-sentenced-three-years-state" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mercurynews.com&#x2F;ci_20884491&#x2F;saratoga-businessman-...</a> )<p>I don&#x27;t advocate such, just a story and some bay area experiences I remember.