That would be entirely consistent, because it would be an objective standard.
By the way, criminal negligence causing death carries a maximum of life. It just does not have a minimum sentence of life, nor does it have a 25-year parole ineligibility period.
So there are other ways of dealing with it. You just have to avoid the absolute and necessary possibility, because of the way the exception is crafted, that somebody would have to be prosecuted for first-degree murder. That's the problem with how it's presently written.