The motorist's lack of insurance will also make it harder for the victim's family to collect damages in a wrongful death suit.

The impatient anti-cyclists often make demands that cyclists pay for insurance in order to use the roadways. Ironically, in all my years studying cycling safety, the only fatalities I've heard of cyclists causing to others in the USA involved riding on sidewalks and greenways, not roadways.

I am involved in activities that involve paying for insurance for cycling, but only to cover myself or a bike club for liability when we take other people out cycling on the roadways. The fees are miniscule. I actually teach traffic cycling through the League of American Bicyclists (LCI#1690) and the only way that the insurance company will cover the class is if we strictly teach the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles on roadways - no "pedestrians on wheels" behavior allowed, because this increases risk.

"they can have other administrative penalties such as long-term license suspension and major increase in insurance costs."

Well, to be fair, insurance payments only go up if you pay them to begin with.

"wreckless driving to endanger, ... and driving left of center."

These are moving violations. Obviously if he had Intentionally run someone over there would be much more severe penalties, but he's getting off this lightly because it was an accident. And this is just what he's charged with. He could very likely not be convicted of all of those offenses. But the fact remains that someone was killed who might not have been killed if the driver was in better control of their vehicle. That's for the courts to decide, but I wouldn't accept the fact that it was an accident as an excuse, otherwise it could be an excuse for any situation that you didn't want to take responsibility for. The point of these laws is to encourage people behave more responsibly. If they're not enforced, especially in extreme cases where fatalities result, the law loses whatever power it might have had to encourage responsible behavior.

I think the Class I Misdemeanor manslaughter charge is unnecessary as it was an accident and no traffic laws were violated (driving without insurance is not related to driving itself). Although the charges are not that serious (a small fine, probation or community service for 1st time offender), they can have other administrative penalties such as long-term license suspension and major increase in insurance costs.

"was that an ill attempt at sarcasm?"

Apparently, although I didn't think it was that ill. If you read my other posts on this topic, I think you'll find that I'm not actually an advocate of driving illegally. And when I talked about the hypothetical vehicle, I actually had a specific one in mind apart from the moped (although it does fit the bill), a non-motor vehicle that would a particularly good choice for this particular driver, given his present situation.