We feared this, and it happened.  According to the Times Standard, District Attorney Paul Gallegos reduced the charges from Felony Vehicular Manslaughter to a misdemeanor, saying that he could not prove it was gross negligence for Alan Bear to see Greg Jennings ahead on his bicycle, dressed in bright clothing and riding on the far right of the shoulder on a straight stretch of the 299 freeway, and then for Bear to swerve so far out of his lane accross a 10 foot shoulder that his right wheels were on the grass, striking and killing Greg with the LEFT front of his vehicle.

An act is considered gross negligence if is "done with such careless disregard for the safety of others' lives that it is likely to cause foreseeable injury."

But the CHP officer and the DA seem to think that use of drugs or alcohol, or a particularly unusual cause of distraction inside the vehicle would be the only way to prove this, rather than the driving behavior itself.  When evidence for either of distraction or drugs was too weak to prove, the CHP officer changed his opinion, contradicting his recommendation on the collision report.

”The facts didn't change ... but the officer's opinion changed,” Gallegos said after the hearing.

The death was tragic and “completely preventable” but the change in the officer's report was based on a reevaluation of the event, Gallegos said.

”Further investigation proved that it was not gross negligence or at least that we couldn't prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt,” he said.

It would appear that as long as you are sober and not causing yourself unusual distractions in your vehicle, you are not demonstrating careless disregard for others' safety when you swerve off the road to run people over and kill them..

Speculation:  It's hard to imagine a CHP officer having the opinion that this kind of driving behavior was not gross negligence had it been a CHP officer standing on the side of the road instead of a bicyclist riding home from work.

This is a dissappointing day for public safety.