The law has significant nuance whenever someone is killed. Each state uses different terms, but it generally runs along the lines of:

• First degree murder: intentful and planned.
• Second degree murder: intentful but unplanned.
• Third degree murder: not by intent but also not accidental. Fit of rage type of thing.
• Manslaughter: no intent, no rage, often negligence, and similar regrettable deaths.

Each one carries a progressively lighter punishment. You can be found guilty of manslaughter and get off with a fine, probation, or even time-served. The courts will adjust punishment according to each crime's circumstances.

What ticks this community off is a special type of murder: Vehicular Manslaughter. It has all the hallmarks of regular manslaughter, except it's much harder to prosecute and often with zero consequences. It's, quite literally, a whole different section of law to reduce the consequences of driving. The exception-to-the-exception is intent! If someone intentionally kills with a gun or a vehicle, then they get charged first or second degree murder. But the consequences are different if someone with a gun negligibly kills (it does happen) and a driver negligibly kills. It's not justice when a boss who didn't maintain a ladder which killed his painter faces more consequences than the driver who didn't maintain their brakes and ran over a child.