They worked at a Walmart in Laurel, Bibi Karpaiya in customer service and Mary Hummel in the garden section, often walking across busy Route 198 together to reach the store. As they crossed on Feb. 12, a car struck them, killing Karpaiya.
On Friday, the driver, Patricia Ann Rowland, 48, was convicted of reckless driving, a traffic violation, saying that the sun's glare was so strong that she did not see that the traffic light on Route 198 at Russett Green East had turned red. The Anne Arundel County jury found her not guilty of the criminal charge of automobile manslaughter, in a case that is reigniting calls for legislation to address what prosecutors say is a gap in the law.
"If you are negligent and somebody dies, there should be possible jail time," said Anne Arundel County Deputy State's Attorney William Roessler, who prosecuted the case against Rowland.
The judge, Paul G. Goetzke, who was elected on a law-and-order platform, made similar remarks when he fined Rowland $400, placed her on two years' probation and ordered her to perform 40 hours of community service. He said there is a "loophole in criminal law."
Manslaughter, which requires proof of gross negligence, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Another law, automobile homicide while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, allows up to five years, Roessler said. The reckless endangerment law excludes traffic incidents, he said. Only traffic tickets are possible.
Steven Sindler, Rowland's lawyer, said it would be misguided to base a law on a desire for jail time for action that is not criminal behavior.
"An accident is an accident, I think that's where the legislation is coming down," said Del. Joseph F. Vallario Jr., a Prince George's County Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where attempts to pass such legislation have died.
Similarly, the driver who fell asleep on the Bay Bridge last year, causing a tractor-trailer to plunge into the water, killing its driver, was not criminally charged, but was ticketed.
Another bill is likely in the coming session, said William Katcef, an Anne Arundel County assistant state's attorney who tracks legislation for the Maryland State's Attorneys Association.
Hummel and Karpaiya were in the crosswalk. But Hummel and others wondered what, if anything, could be done to blunt the sun's rays that eastbound morning drivers say are blinding.
"Honestly, I didn't want the woman to go to jail. It's not going to bring my friend back. It's not going to help me get better," said Mary Hummel, 55, who has disabilities from the accident. She used to lift 10-pound bags of soil onto garden supply stacks. "Now I can't even lift a laundry basket."
Rowland wept in court Friday but did not speak.
Sindler said his client, who was on her way to work at Fort Meade the morning of the accident, had not previously had so much as a traffic ticket and was devastated. The light was green when she last saw it. He expects, he said, that she will be sued.
Roessler said Rowland was going slightly over the 40-mph speed limit and that if she couldn't tell that the light was red - though the red light allowed cars going through the intersection in other directions - she should have slowed and stopped.
