Three and a half year old Elle Vandenberghe was run over and left brain damaged, due to a negligent New York driver looking for a parking spot. The victim’s parents are now pushing a new law to make it a crime of third-degree vehicular assault when a driver knowingly breaks traffic regulations and seriously injures a pedestrian. If the law passes, offenders would serve up to four years in jail, and lose their driver’s licenses for up to seven years. In Elle’s case, a driver reversed through an intersection crosswalk and recklessly ran over the toddler. In New York alone, in 2008, five thousand people were injured in pedestrian car accidents. Personal injury lawyers applaud the Vandenberghe’s efforts to reach beyond personal injury compensation – which Elle deserves – but expanding into injury prevention and law formulation, so that others will not suffer the same fate. Full story here. Illustration photo by Kathy Gardner/The Journal News.