Not all people street racing are “young punks”. It happens to anyone.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2006/01/11/1388766-sun.html
IMO he did get off easy, comm. service and 5 years no license…woopie. How about vehicular manslaughter!!!
Thats just my .02
He got off easy if your the family of the victim. It was fair if your in his shoes. It was after all an accident, he did not have intent to kill. I realize the tragic loss of life is not a minor thing, but also imagine what your life would be like without a license for 5 years.
That sentance was the biggest piece of horseshit there ever was.
If that happened to my wife, goddamn, I’d be all over atleast a 10 year max sentence in the slam.
I agree, the sentence is way too light. I know he didn’t intend to kill, but he did. Street racing around crosswalks, in broad daylight is retarded. He affected that woman’ family’s lives forever. He only has 5 years without a license and house arrest. Boo hoo.
Also is there any word on the other corvette that was racing??
It is no accident when someone chooses to street race.
I am not trying to defend the guy. I agree he should have had a stiffer penalty. Guaranteed if he was 25-30yrs of age it would have been different. It was still an accident and I have my doubts everyone here is innocent of stop light racing. Consider how many drunk drivers get even lighter sentances. All in all it’s just plain bad for everyone.
Didn’t say you were trying to defend him. This is not directed at you.
When people call these things accidents it dismisses the fact that people have the choice to street race or not street race. It is not like his car decided to do it itself. That would be an accident.
Calling it an accident implies he had no choice in this situation which is incorrect. He chose to street race and while it is pretty unlikely he chose to kill a woman with his car there isn’t anyone out there that could say he didn’t choose a course of action that lead to her death. IMO this was not an “accident” but rather a real potential outcome of a freely chosen action.
If I kill someone while driving drunk I don’t think it is an accident even if I had no intention of killing someone. I know full well that killing someone is a possibile result of driving drunk. I think the same goes for street racing. People have died from it before so it is not an unlikely consequence. Before the next time you hammer the throttle in an impromptu red light race consider what can happen and then choose wisely because you may have an “accident”.
He got off way too easy.
I didn’t hear about that until now. Honestly I think it’s way too light. 5 years witout a license isn’t a punishment. It’s a royal pain in the ass, but it’s not a punishment. Well I suppose by definition it is a punishment, but I think it’s a pretty crappy one. House arrest is even worse. He’s a 58 year old, retired civil engineer. Chances are he spends most of his time in the house anyway.
Anyone else think it’s almost ironic that they’re trying to sell cars in an article about a vehicular fatality?
I’ve followed this story since day one and the punishment handed to him just made me shake my head. Probation? HE FUCKING KILLED SOMEONE.
Know what his excuse was? In the paper today, they mentioned him blaming the “accident” (I’m with you, Dave) on a mechanical failure. He claimed that the car’s TRACTION CONTROL system malfunctioned and that led to him oversteering off the road. He also claimed that he wasn’t aware that his car could react that violently. It was a 500 HP supercharged Corvette - and you’re going to tell me he had NO IDEA that his rear end could step out on him? Nigga please.
He should be banned from driving for 10 years, and serve at least 6 months in jail. I don’t care how sorry he is, he made a concious choice to race in public and killed someone. If he had put a shotgun to the back of her head and killed her that way, you can bet that he wouldn’t get a prohibition on gun ownership and 2 years probation.
Well, these days with our justice system, he probably would.
human life has no value now a days …
Its not accident at all. He should be charged under first degree murder.
Money talks! Its part of our society…Look at the master OJ
The only thing that separates this guy from the majority of the members of NECC (including myself) is random chance. That’s it. On that particular day at that particular time at that particular location he lost control of his car which jumped the curb at the exact spot where that lady was walking.
Had he not killed (or injured) a pedistrian, didn’t do major damage to public or private property (like going through a wall), or engage in a police chase, the incident would not even have been newsworthy and we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all.
Chance played against this guy (and the victum) in this incident, whereas it has probably been on our favor at times in the past. How many times have you engaged in a random spontaneous little stoplight drag where nothing happened? Should you go submit yourself to the police and suggest you be put in jail?
Yes this guy by the act of his irresponsible driving killed this woman. That doesn’t mean he is a CRIMINAL. He is probably just like many of us. He had a momentary lack of judgement that resulted in the worst of consequences. To be too quick to condemn this guy, to either BURN IN HELL or rot in jail for 10+ years, you are just the same condemning yourself and the rest of us too.
Besides, our penal system today is already overtaxed. Can it really support having all the 'dangerous drivers" thrown in there too?
I personally don’t have a problem with quick races so long as they’re done away from the public and traffic. My biggest problem with this guy is how he admitted that he killed this pedestrian, but rather than accept responsibility for it, he blamed the whole thing on a supposed mechanical failure which anyone that knows anything about cars knows is bullshit. I’m not saying street racing is evil - I’ve done it, and I’m sure a number of you have too…but there is a difference between the way that I do it and racing in the middle of broad daylight with traffic and peds all over the place. I would expect a 58 year old to be smarter than that.
He should have plead guilty and taken his punishment. Does he deserve jail time? You’re damn right he does - shooting someone in the face can be a moment of bad judgement too, and few of those people get off scot-free. Everyone needs to remember, every time you turn the key to start your car, you can kill someone with it - a sorry to the family, however heartfelt, doesn’t change the fact that you killed their relative.
In BC, there were about four fatal street racing incidents in 2 years and every one of the responsible drivers got significant jail time. One of them was even deported after he was released from jail. People need to understand that there are real penalties for driving like an asshole.
10 years would be a little excessive, but he deserves at least 6 months (which would still be a joke). I mean, Inzane, if someone killed your wife in a street racing accident, do you think it likely you would find house arrest acceptable?
PyreXXX, I agree with most of your points but your shooting example was a bad one. The sole purpose of a gun is to fire a bullet (at… a target? a person? an animal?). It is not the purpose of a car to mow people down (unless you’ve seen the movie Deathrace 2000). A person may choose to carry a gun, but wouldn’t do so without at least a remote possibility that they may have to shoot someone. You say shooting someone is bad judgement. Maybe. But it was at least somewhat premeditated by the decision to carry a gun. With the exception of choosing to get behind the wheel when tired or drunk there is not the reasonable expectation that you will kill someone when you get behind the wheel.
Your comment about my wife: As far as how we’d each feel personally being in the shoes of the victum’s family, OF COURSE we’d feel the most adament about punishment if it happened to us. But you can’t have that side of the coin without the other. Consider if it was YOU who killed someone. Would you hope to get the maximum penalty possible? If you said yes, I’d call BS.
This guy has to live with the guilty conscience for the rest of his life, whether he’s sitting at home or in a jail cell. None of us can tell how he’s really feeling inside.
Stoplight drag racing in a busy area is plain stupid. Not one person on this planet wouldn’t want to murder the driver who struck down their wife so that question is irrelevent. Besides all of us here are plainly in agreement the guy’s an idiot who’s stupidity destroyed the life of an entire family. It’s a matter of wrong place wrong time for both of them.
I don’t feel my shooting example is particularily bad - we wern’t debating the lethality of the instruments of death (car vs gun, say). Think of it this way, a guy cleans his loaded gun and ends up killing one of his kids when it goes off accidentally (which has happened). Now, like the street racing incident, there was no INTENTION or premeditation of killing, which doesn’t really change the fact that the victim is rather dead.
Much like driving cars, gun ownership comes with a responsibility - I’m sure that most folks that have concealed weapons permits in the US don’t go out into the world with the expectation that they’ll kill someone, much like we don’t when we drive. However, the potential for tragic carnage does exist - so why aren’t we standing up against it? Everyone knows about the street racing laws in Cali - if you’re caught street racing they impound and crush your car. Of course, people addicted to street racing will just buy cheap cars for the purpose of racing, but for most people the destruction of your car is a penalty they aren’t willing to risk.
As for seeing the other side of the coin, if I killed someone knowingly committing a dangerous act like street racing, I would expect jail time. The law doesn’t work on people feeling sorry about their actions - after all, psychopaths can fake that even though they have no ability to actually feel that way. The punitive section of law is based on people’s actions - and if you wonder if I would want the maximum penalty for me, of course not. I don’t think that it is warranted in this case either - I’m just suggesting that he should have got SOME jail time. He did after all, kill someone and is getting off relatively scot free.
I think saying that they were both in the wrong place at the wrong time is incorrect - the lady here was doing nothing wrong and was killed because of a deliberately chosen action. She was in the wrong place, but he knew exactly what he was doing.
Ok, I’ll buy that. But for that scenario you just described, do you feel that that father should go to jail?
For this dangerous driving case I do agree with the premise that some jail time (or other stiffer penalty) would’ve likely been warranted. (how much, I don’t know). For lack of any other reason, as a deterent to others I guess. But on the same note it might’ve been too easy for this case to have swung so totally the OTHER way and raked this guy over the coals with maximum penalties, just for the point of making an example out of him. That might not have been any more justified than the seemingly lax penalties that he’s getting. Who’d be crying foul then?
I was just trying to point out how everyone’s screaming for this guy’s blood, when in some instances people are hypocrits. This could easily have been them (any one of the big talkers here or in the same thread on 780), and they’d be sitting there sorry as hell, and scared to death that they might be going to jail, etc. Nobody wants to kill a person, and nobody wants extreme penalties, no one wants to have to live with a guilty conscience.
Sure the guy knew what he was doing, but he was doing it in the wrong place at the wrong time. The woman just happened to have a stroke of REAL bad luck that placed her in the path of an out of control vehicle, hence wrong place wrong time. You cannot compare a loaded gun to a car. A gun is a tool of destruction no matter what the intent or purpose. The comparison to the man accidently shooting his child and the driver accidently hitting the woman is a fair comparison of non intentional outcomes. No matter what people might think a fair punishment for this would be, in the courtroom it is difficult to prosecute an accident.
I am glad you said that and not me. But i feel the same way. But there was still the chance to race there and from where they started to race they could see the traffic and people by the road. Not the best idea in my opinion but he is not a criminal, but also what he got was not enough for what he did.