Horrible car crash was God's plan

Overheal

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

There was no defence as such. He plead guilty. It was an attempt at an apology. A pretty poor one mind.

Suppose when you hit rock bottom you can always get by with a little help from imaginary friends. Nihilism is the birthing ground for religion after all.

Apparently after the allegation read out in court a warrant was issued and Donegal Gardai are now looking for God. They have staked out some churches and interviewed several priests but the mastermind behind the Plan is proving elusive.

RandomViewer

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Theres a serious problem around driver culture in that county, theres no doubt about it unfortunately

From Fermanagh

Banana Republic 1

TomSweeney wrote: »

It's easy to find religion and God/Jesus when you don't want to take responsibility for your actions ?

Isnt that how Christianity works

RandomViewer

Test For Echo wrote: »

And fled the scene, leaving his friends injured & dying on the road. Hid out and rang his father who had the cop on to bring him back to the scene. Should be longer than a 5 year sentence.

I was actually surprised it wasn't a suspended sentence, the lawyer played every note, partner waiting on baby, hard worker, survivor who's now in a wheelchair pleading for leniency, Judges usually swallow that stuff wholesale.

RandomViewer

TomSweeney wrote: »

It's easy to find religion and God/Jesus when you don't want to take responsibility for your actions ?

Used to halve sentences in the North, the defendant has found God and sees the error of his ways, think that's what they were trying here but it didn't wash.

SeanW

magicbastarder wrote: »

they do say if you want to kill someone and get away with it, do it with a car. he killed two people and left a third with lifelong injuries, through repeated and wilful actions.

if you did that with a weapon, you wouldn't be looking at five years.

If you want to kill someone, and then you do so, it's murder. And it is common for manslaughter cases to be treated more leniently than murder, for obvious reasons. Although you could argue that this sentence was unduly lenient, the "driver" in this case isn't exactly "getting away with it". He will go to jail, he will be banned from driving for a very long time, and the criminal record will likely haunt him forever. Unfortunately there does seem to be some weird dynamic in play in Donegal, that county seems to have a lot of fatalities.

Nobody in the car lived in Donegal. They only went to Bundoran when the nightclub opened. 10/15 minutes driving at normal speed would have had them back in Fermanagh.

Zebra3

Why shouldn’t the defendant claim all this nonsense about God and Jesus?

Have a look at the bs in the constitution. An absolute embarrassment.

So if it’s good enough for the state....

TP_CM

Zebra3 wrote: »

Why shouldn’t the defendant claim all this nonsense about God and Jesus?

Have a look at the bs in the constitution. An absolute embarrassment.

So if it’s good enough for the state....

Even God himself would be scratching his head on this one. "Sorry, what's all this now?!"

Thelonious Monk

Is there a culture of boy racers and drink driving in Donegal? Lovely place but I feel like I've read a lot about terrible crashes up there.

TheBoyConor

magicbastarder wrote: »

they do say if you want to kill someone and get away with it, do it with a car. he killed two people and left a third with lifelong injuries, through repeated and wilful actions.

if you did that with a weapon, you wouldn't be looking at five years.

Yeah you'd probably get a suspended sentence.

Ave Sodalis

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Is there a culture of boy racers and drink driving in Donegal? Lovely place but I feel like I've read a lot about terrible crashes up there.

There is definitely a car culture, but being entirely honest, when you're driving in Donegal and someone belts past, you can almost place money on the car having a yellow reg.

Strumms

gmisk wrote: »

Awful stuff.
Fled the scene is just the icing on the cake.

I know they were young but what were they thinking piling into the car with him?

A c*** AND a coward basically. Sounds like an absolute dreadful human being... then to come out with ‘gods plan’ codswallop. Then I’m forgetting it’s 2021, where personal responsibility is pretty unfashionable... think that sentence is about 4 years too light at best.

snoopy84

Deleted User wrote:

Theres a serious problem around driver culture in that county, theres no doubt about it unfortunately

Same where I grew up I'm appallingly ashamed to say. Wouldn't be uncommon for us to also fill the boot with passengers at the end of the night.
We all drove unroadworthy cars WAY underage. I used to drive a car with no brakes and relied on working down the gears then the handbrake, before I was even old enough to drive and I wasn't the only one (I'm actually disgusted with myself writing this)
A drunk driver hit me head on one night we were knocked out but thankfully we were ok, when I confronted the drunken bum the following day I was told he had done nothing wrong as I was underage.
We had a car that we had cut to bits taking the roof and doors off, the tourists would stop us for pictures. The guards passed us a couple of times in that one.
And who gave all of us the cars Our parents!
There has been a good few road deaths around there where the community gathered around them rather than shaming them. Including a very close family member of mine. One of the only times I can remember the victims family being angry with the driver and the community mocks and gossips her mother's grief, even witnesses in the inquest defended the driver and fabricated the truth.
Thankfully I believe attitudes are changing in that area but certainly not quickly enough.

magicbastarder

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Is there a culture of boy racers and drink driving in Donegal? Lovely place but I feel like I've read a lot about terrible crashes up there.

this is a good listen.

https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2016/0804/806861-we-decide-who-lives-or-dies/

Northernlily

Reminds me of another incident near Buncrana where the accident resulted in 8 fatalities from an overloaded Passat.

Think I read somewhere that driver had been done for other traffic offences since.

It's a really strange roads culture in Donegal.

seamus

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Is there a culture of boy racers and drink driving in Donegal? Lovely place but I feel like I've read a lot about terrible crashes up there.

It's a mixture of a load of things. Culturally, Donegal has a "wild west" feel to it. They're geographically and politically isolated, and it's a small county. So decades of being ignored by government has led to a sort of self-governance in Donegal.

The Gardai are still in authority, but they're also isolated from the mothership, so frequently do things their own way.

So corruption is quite widespread, and being a cute hoor is practically a local sport. Thus, "minor" laws like having a driving licence or insurance are not seen as important, drink-driving is grand just don't get caught.

There is also a rally culture that feeds into this. Hundreds of people gather a load of old bangers, pick a big field and race them in public. I don't think it's illegal, and isn't an awful sport, but it creates a cowboy culture in general when it comes to driving - the rallying doesn't stay at the races, and cars are toys to young people.

The comment above about "yellow regs" is another example of this. They're blaming northern irish drivers for poor driving, when in fact it's very common for Donegal people to buy and drive yellow regs in order to get around paying VRT and road tax. They also believe they're immune to being stopped by the Gardai because of the yellow reg.

Once again. Nobody in that car was from Donegal. The car wasn’t registered in Donegal either. They just happened to be in Donegal as that’s where the nearest nightclub was.

Bunny Colvin

seamus wrote: »

It's a mixture of a load of things. Culturally, Donegal has a "wild west" feel to it. They're geographically and politically isolated, and it's a small county. So decades of being ignored by government has led to a sort of self-governance in Donegal.

The Gardai are still in authority, but they're also isolated from the mothership, so frequently do things their own way.

So corruption is quite widespread, and being a cute hoor is practically a local sport. Thus, "minor" laws like having a driving licence or insurance are not seen as important, drink-driving is grand just don't get caught.

There is also a rally culture that feeds into this. Hundreds of people gather a load of old bangers, pick a big field and race them in public. I don't think it's illegal, and isn't an awful sport, but it creates a cowboy culture in general when it comes to driving - the rallying doesn't stay at the races, and cars are toys to young people.

The comment above about "yellow regs" is another example of this. They're blaming northern irish drivers for poor driving, when in fact it's very common for Donegal people to buy and drive yellow regs in order to get around paying VRT and road tax. They also believe they're immune to being stopped by the Gardai because of the yellow reg.

It's the fourth largest county in Ireland.

I'd say your paragraph on there being a rally culture makes the most sense. Young lads trying to live up to it and outdo each other, inevitable you'll have incidents like this especially when you add alcohol into the mix.

TP_CM

That girl Shiva who died left behind a 3 year old son.

And the driver's partner is pregnant now, which will pull on the heart strings of those involved with any future parole hearings. I'd say he'll be out in 2-3 years.

I think so little of him at the moment that I'd nearly guess this pregnancy with his partner is just an attempt to decrease his prison time. What kind of couple starts a family with one of them facing jail time. They're not exactly in their late 30s.

Tchaikovsky

Some seriously disturbed drivers out there on the roads it seems.

The other day I had a car approaching on me on my side of the road as the driver decided to overtake a cyclist on a blind bend. I beeped for about 2 seconds and she had a completely oblivious look on her face, like she wasn't about to hit an oncoming vehicle.

TP_CM

Bunny Colvin wrote: »

It's the fourth largest county in Ireland.

I'd say your paragraph on there being a rally culture makes the most sense. Young lads trying to live up to it and outdo each other, inevitable you'll have incidents like this especially when you add alcohol into the mix.

I think he meant density-wise. The amount of people per square km. I think Donegal is definitely in the bottom 5 if not the bottom 3.

Yes, I think the rally culture has a big part to play. Unless the rally culture was borne from this kind of wild culture. I'm not sure which came first.

breezy1985

storker wrote: »

Judges need to start handing down lifetime driving bans for killing people through dangerous/drunk driving.

Killing people in a car just doesn't seem to hold the same weight as doing it any other way even with all the illegal things this guy done wrong

breezy1985

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

Some seriously disturbed drivers out there on the roads it seems.

The other day I had a car approaching on me on my side of the road as the driver decided to overtake a cyclist on a blind bend. I beeped for about 2 seconds and she had a completely oblivious look on her face, like she wasn't about to hit an oncoming vehicle.

I cycle on country roads and on a 40km cycle I will see on average 5 near misses from cars overtaking on blind bends and hills.

Another stupid one I see is when there are bikes and walkers on opposite sides of a country road and a car can't wait 5 seconds for them to pass so tries to squeeze into the gap between the 2

seamus

Bunny Colvin wrote: »

It's the fourth largest county in Ireland.

When I said "small" I actually meant population-wise. I said it in my head, but didn't put it down properly in the post.
It's a physically big county, but doesn't have a massive population, so it has a very low density. Coupled with being locked in by water on two sides and a foreign border on the other (for most of the last century), made it a very isolated county.

Roanmore

Not related to this case but it infuriates me when a tragic incident occurs and somebody says "it was god's will" as if that's a comfort to families involved.

osarusan

Incredibly forgiving victims/victim family members.

If I was one of the parents of the young adults involved in this crash, caused by him in his pissed state and with his driving history, and he started whining about why god would plan such a thing, I imagine those comments would make me want to gouge his eyes out.

jimmycrackcorm

From a religious perspective, God's plan refers to actions of nature - e.g. People killed by a Tsunami.
If you choose to drink and drive in a dangerous manner, crash and killing your passengers - that's all on you.

TP_CM

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

From a religious perspective, God's plan refers to actions of nature - e.g. People killed by a Tsunami.
If you choose to drink and drive in a dangerous manner, crash and killing your passengers - that's all on you.

You'd think a good barrister would cop that and maybe advise his client about it. He must have felt red-faced himself reading that out.