Agree. And I find it surprising that the women in the article was sentenced to anything. It is certainly a moronic decision to stop on the motorway on the wrong line to protect ducklings, but what about a motorcycle that hits a static object? If it didn't have the visibility to have the time to stop then it was going too fast.
In a lot of places, there is a minimum speed on the freeway. In a lot of places, it's illegal to stop on the freeway. You may see cars broken down along the highway with tickets on the windshield and then getting towed after a period of time.
Freeways are very safe as long as traffic is moving at a more-or-less steady speed. That's why the speed limits can be so high, higher than would be safe if you needed to regularly stop. And people are not used to stopping on the freeway. It takes a long time to come to a stop from 70, 75, even 80mph, and if you're not expecting to have to stop, it can take longer than normal to realize you have to stop. Even in easily-recognizable traffic jams, many people have to emergency brake because they don't realize how long it takes to stop when you're going at freeway speeds.
Freeways are very dangerous places for stopped traffic. It is your responsibility to keep moving in traffic, and if you have to stop, to make sure you stop safely and only when absolutely required.
It was not absolutely required for this woman to stop, it was illegal for her to stop, and this terrible and unnecessary decision cost someone else their life. The fact that the motorcyclist also made a bad judgement call doesn't negate the fact that this driver made a completely unnecessary and illegal decision that cost the cyclist his life.
