First, negligence, in and of itself, is not a crime. Combined with other facts it may produce a tort or a crime. Here, we actually need more facts to figure out if it is one, the other, both, or neither.
Facts we need to know:
- Did she knowingly/willfully exit the moving car without putting it in park and applying the parking brake? It appears she did, but if she had a psychotic break, she may not have.
2a) if she DID do this knowingly/willfully, that constitutes negligence (she breached her duty of care to others.) On the civil side, because her breach of the duty of care was both a cause-in-fact (the damages wouldn’t have happened without her negligence) and a proximate cause (it is sufficiently related to the injury), her insurer and she will be liable for all of the other drivers’ damages. On the criminal side, it will depend on the jurisdiction, but may at least unsafe operation of a motor vehicle if not reckless driving or even criminal negligence.
2b) If she DID have a psychotic break (or other uncontrollable episode that caused her actions to be involuntary) then the question becomes “Was she on notice about the possibility of such an event due to her past medical history?” In other words, had such a psychotic break happened before? If so, then the mere act of getting into the car and driving it is the negligent act. If she had not had notice (i.e., this and anything like it had never happened before) she may not be civilly or criminally liable at all in this case. However, from now on she will be if this ever happens again because she is obviously now on notice about her medical issues and will be de-facto negligent if she ever gets behind the wheel again before she is cured of her issues.
