Driver kills kid and then sues his parents

SugarHigh

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101114/ap_on_re_us/us_suing_the_victims
The aim seems to be that by putting the family under scrutiny that they will fold and drop their lawsuit against him.

Mozoltov!

He wants 15k, they want 15k. Just toss it out the window and call it even.

pickarooney

Well, I for one am looking forward to a few hours of calm, rational debate exploring both sides of this intriguing argument.

who what when

Just americans doing what they do best.......

being total assholes!

Mozoltov!

who what when wrote: »

Just americans doing what they do best.......

being total assholes!

I can think of a lot more things that they're better at TBH.

Fizman

What angers me in this is comparing the sentences that the US dishes out in comparison to here. 10 years for manslaughter. Do the same here and you'd be hard pushed to find a community service sentence (E Halvey case in point, and alcohol was involved there).

Sticky_Fingers

Prosecutors say Weaving was recklessly passing another car at about 83 mph in a 45-mph zone when his car hit Matthew Kenney on Route 69 in the Waterbury suburb of Prospect on April 27, 2007. A jury convicted him in December 2008 of manslaughter and other crimes.

What a pr!ck, he was driving so fast that the poor kid could have been wrapped in three feet of cotton wool and he still would have killed him.

Bob the Builder

Reminds me of fairly recently when I was driving down a public road at 25-30mph and the roads were slightly wet and I was driving unusually slow anyway. Come around the corner to see a mother and grandmother on the side of the road while a four year old boy is running around on the middle of the road.

I stopped well in time, thankfully. But never have I received such an earful in my life, two women screaming at me that I'm a crazy driver, etc. etc.

So I turned around, came back along the road and personally apologised the mother and she was okay, and apologised back that she was just scared. But the grandmother started giving me buckets of bitchy remarks that young lads like me should be taken off the road, etc. etc and that we should drive to suit the conditions of the road?

If I drove around every corner expecting to meet a four year old, well then I'd be faster walking... Blaming the driver is always the easiest option. Yes, most of the time it is the drivers fault but even if it's not, let's blame that person anyway....

SugarHigh

Fizman wrote: »

What angers me in this is comparing the sentences that the US dishes out in comparison to here. 10 years for manslaughter. Do the same here and you'd be hard pushed to find a community service sentence (E Halvey case in point, and alcohol was involved there).

The guy had dive drink driving arrests but was never put off the road which would have happened here after the first.

SugarHigh

Sticky_Fingers wrote: »

What a pr!ck, he was driving so fast that the poor kid could have been wrapped in three feet of cotton wool and he still would have killed him.

That was just a claim made by the prosecutor and they can pretty much claim anything.

Rabble Rabble

Bob the Builder wrote: »

If I drove around every corner expecting to meet a four year old, well then I'd be faster walking... Blaming the driver is always the easiest option. Yes, most of the time it is the drivers fault but even if it's not, let's blame that person anyway....

Thats how you should treat blind corners, in fact, slow to near zero.

Wompa1

Bob the Builder wrote: »

Reminds me of fairly recently when I was driving down a public road at 25-30mph and the roads were slightly wet and I was driving unusually slow anyway. Come around the corner to see a mother and grandmother on the side of the road while a four year old boy is running around on the middle of the road.

I stopped well in time, thankfully. But never have I received such an earful in my life, two women screaming at me that I'm a crazy driver, etc. etc.

So I turned around, came back along the road and personally apologised the mother and she was okay, and apologised back that she was just scared. But the grandmother started giving me buckets of bitchy remarks that young lads like me should be taken off the road, etc. etc and that we should drive to suit the conditions of the road?

If I drove around every corner expecting to meet a four year old, well then I'd be faster walking... Blaming the driver is always the easiest option. Yes, most of the time it is the drivers fault but even if it's not, let's blame that person anyway....

On my way home I go down a stretch of road which houses many many settled travellers. The fear of hitting on of their kids (more a fear of getting lynched for hitting one of their kids) means a short stretch of road takes me 10 minutes to get past

Rabble Rabble

SugarHigh wrote: »

That was just a claim made by the prosecutor and they can pretty much claim anything.

Prosecutors say Weaving was recklessly passing another car at about 83 mph in a 45-mph zone when....

Who is going to survive 83 mph?

bonerm

Mozoltov! wrote: »

I can think of a lot more things that they're better at TBH.

Agreed. They're also very good at killing people. For evidence see thread story.

Bob the Builder

Bob the Builder wrote: »

If I drove around every corner expecting to meet a four year old, well then I'd be faster walking... Blaming the driver is always the easiest option. Yes, most of the time it is the drivers fault but even if it's not, let's blame that person anyway....

"Drive at a speed that enables you to stop within the distance you can see to be clear"

The most important yet least understood rule of the road.

Calibos

Bob the Builder wrote: »

Reminds me of fairly recently when I was driving down a public road at 25-30mph and the roads were slightly wet and I was driving unusually slow anyway. Come around the corner to see a mother and grandmother on the side of the road while a four year old boy is running around on the middle of the road.

I stopped well in time, thankfully. But never have I received such an earful in my life, two women screaming at me that I'm a crazy driver, etc. etc.

So I turned around, came back along the road and personally apologised the mother and she was okay, and apologised back that she was just scared. But the grandmother started giving me buckets of bitchy remarks that young lads like me should be taken off the road, etc. etc and that we should drive to suit the conditions of the road?

If I drove around every corner expecting to meet a four year old, well then I'd be faster walking... Blaming the driver is always the easiest option. Yes, most of the time it is the drivers fault but even if it's not, let's blame that person anyway....

Just had a customer in berating female drivers and I told him my story which was very similar to yours.

Coming up to a junction I notice that the woman waiting to pull out is not looking in my direction at all. I slow right down to about 10 or 15 mph just in case and of course my caution was warranted. The dozy bint pulls out right in front of me when I was only about 12ft away. Even going only 10 or 15mph but having to stop dead in such a short distance will result in a little skid and tyre squeel. Only on hearing this does she turn and look in my direction for the first time. She fcukin' screams and gesticulates at me to SLOW DOWN!!!. Only she had kids in the back of the car that I wouldn't want to frighten, I would have jumped out and tore strips of the stupid cow. No doubt she told the husband later that night about the reckless speeding bloke that nearly killed her earlier :rolleyes:

Shanegggg

Reminds me of this story, only happened at couple of weeks ago.

America at its best!

28064212

Rabble Rabble wrote: »

Who is going to survive 83 mph?

You bolded the wrong part

Prosecutors say Weaving was recklessly passing another car at about 83 mph in a 45-mph zone when....

Prosecutors can also say that he was blindfolded at the time, it doesn't make it true without any evidence.

The defense claims the driver was within the speed limit and the kid was jumping off a ramp in a friend's driveway into the middle of the road, so there's no way the driver could have avoided him. The article is slanted heavily against the driver.

If the defense's version is true, they have a valid case to make. If the prosecutor's version is true, there's no case. This is why legal systems exist

Wompa1

Shanegggg wrote: »

Reminds me of this story, only happened at couple of weeks ago.

America at its best!

You can bring a suit against anybody over 4 years old so...but presumably you can't sue for monetary gain....In that case the parents deserve to be punished for allowing their kids to race in a public place.

SugarHigh

28064212 wrote: »

You bolded the wrong part

Prosecutors can also say that he was blindfolded at the time, it doesn't make it true without any evidence.

The defense claims the driver was within the speed limit and the kid was jumping off a ramp in a friend's driveway into the middle of the road, so there's no way the driver could have avoided him. The article is slanted heavily against the driver.

If the defense's version is true, they have a valid case to make. If the prosecutor's version is true, there's no case. This is why legal systems exist

+1

It's funny how once someone is accused of something people seem to want him denied any right of defence. We don't actually know if he was speeding.

The manslaughter charge was justified though but I don't see why he shouldn't also be allowed to put part of the blame on the person who cycled out onto the road without looking.

stovelid

It's an outrage. An outrage. An outrageous one at that.

funkyjebus

please continue. becuase they do like to sue eachother, claimant / suing culture came from them and no where else.

unless you meant pick on smaller nations with large reserves. if so, i like the cut of your jibb.