The Comair CL-600 had apparently stopped to avoid hitting a ground vehicle in front of it. I'm not sure how that can be described as a "failure to clear a taxiway." If you were exiting a taxiway and something stopped in front of you, wouldn't you stop as well to avoid hitting their tail? I don't think maneuvering left or right was an option in this case. If you are hit while stopped, it is pretty difficult to blame you, IMHO.
There's a lot of information going around as to why the COMAIR stopped. Point being that if I was forced to stop short due to a ground vehicle not giving way to taxiing aircraft I would advise ground:
"Kennedy Ground, Comair 123, we're unable to enter the ramp at this time, ground vehicle blocking our way" (or some variation thereof).
If it was due to lack of ground personell I'd probably just park myself. Not sure of Kennedy's policy but around here it's no big deal (
happens). If Kennedy doesn't allow an aircraft to park itself I'd get as far in as I can to be sure that I'm clear of the ground controller's area of responsibility.
Furthermore, I didn't assign blame to anybody but made the point that anytime something like this happens it is a combination of things going on. For all we know the driver of the ground vehicle wasn't paying attention to the roadway because he was busy talking with his girlfriend on the phone (I AM NOT SAYING HE WAS, JUST PROVIDING AN EXMAPLE). Little would he think that answering a call from her would start a chain reaction that leads to several million dollars of damage. Situational awareness is key and the absolute most important thing in aviation. Flying and operating by the book will get you nowhere if you don't know where you are and what you're doing. We can argue semantics about procedures all day and all night, but the reality of the situation is AF did not keep appropriate track of his footprint (where his wingtips were), COMAIR encountered something out of the ordinary and it doesn't appear that flight did everything it could have to alert those in its immediate vicinity.
I most often see a similar thing happen with 747 drivers, who happily move the forward part of the aircraft off the runway and stop to wait for directions with their tail sticking out onto the runway as I'm on final, hasn't actually caused any incursions or occurences since they move forward in time. But it does show a clear lack of knowing what the position of their aircraft is.