A distracted driver swerved into an oncoming lane while adjusting their radio, forcing another vehicle to crash into a pedestrian, who later died due to complications during surgery. The driver is charged with criminally negligent homicide. What is the key factor in determining whether the driver can be held criminally liable for the pedestrian’s death?
Whether the surgeon’s handling of the complications during surgery contributed to the pedestrian’s death.
Whether the possibility of harm from the driver's swerving was preventable by other drivers on the scene.
Whether the pedestrian’s death resulted as a foreseeable outcome of the driver’s swerving into oncoming traffic.
Whether the pedestrian acted unlawfully by standing in an unsafe area.
The correct answer focuses on whether the pedestrian’s death was a direct and sufficiently foreseeable result of the driver’s negligent act. Legal causation involves evaluating whether the defendant's conduct played a significant role in bringing about the harm and whether any intervening events (such as complications during surgery) were foreseeable or were extraordinary breaks in the chain of causation.
Incorrect answers bring attention to issues that may distract test-takers but are not directly relevant to the causation analysis. For example, the pedestrian’s behavior (if lawful) or the medical team’s skill are extraneous unless they significantly and unforeseeably interrupt the chain of causation.
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