Driver gets 12 months for texting and driving,killing 2 people

@ChaoSS. OK, so I'm curious here. Are you saying that you have never made a mistake that could have caused someone to be injured or killed? Are you saying that the only people who should be punished for their mistakes, are the people unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when they make their mistake, and cause injury/death. Only those should be punished for the same mistake that you just made that did NOT hurt or kill anybody?

Well, actually, I thought YOU did. Then I went back and re-read your post. Sometimes I don't grasp things real quick. . .

And this is what we have become, EVERYTHING is against the law, but there is little or no penalty for breaking the law. I too am sick of seeing this.

HOWEVER, have you ever heard the term "Justice, tempered with MERCY?"
Do you believe that the person who has a clean driving record for the past umpteen years, but accidentally runs a red light, T bones a mini van and kills a family, should be punished the same way as someone who has a terrible driving record, is driving under the influence and blows through a traffic signal with the same exact result?

 

Your rationale is very extreme dude!! So if a MMA fighter mistakenly hits his opponent in the head with a legal blow but did it illegal because time ran out by a couple of seconds, do he deserve a sadistic murderer punishment??

 

' Moments' before the crash?

A minute and a half is a long time and we don't know what he was doing in the moments before the crash. However...

http://cumberlink.com/news/local/cr...cle_afe629ba-991b-11e3-ae6a-001a4bcf887a.html

472 texts in 6 hours while on duty, presumably a large number of them while behind the wheel.

So we have a guy who is always texting. Probably been doing that for months or years. He's comfortable with it, thinks he can handle it. Some people can multi task, some can't. Now he knows better. He must have remorse. He certainly didn't intend to kill anyone and he must know better now.

Punishing him won't bring them back. His career is over, he has to live with what he did. A long jail term will only cost the state a bunch of money and won't really benefit anyone. At least that's what some seem to think.

Personally I think a very long sentence is appropriate. Just like DUI we all know someone who does it and likely know someone who has been charged with it. Possible even done some time. It's unlikely we know anyone who has paid a huge price for it though and the deterrent needs to be greater. These actions are far from 'an honest mistake' and are a combination of willful ignorance and gross negligence.

 

Certainly, I've made those sorts of mistakes. Since then I've grown up and realized that mistakes don't just happen, they happen for a reason, and it is up to me to ensure that I'm not the reason for someone's death. That's part of my point, people don't take it seriously these days when someone dies through gross negligence. It's just a mistake, an accident.

No problems there...

This is what I don't understand. How does someone just accidentally run a red light? If you are the sort of person to pay that little attention to the road, then I'm guessing the clean driving record is a matter of dumb luck. Good drivers simply don't "accidentally" run red lights.


I should clarify. It's not just any time someone dies, but any time someone dies because of negligence. If something happens because of a situation that could not be avoided through what is known as a reasonable standard of care, then that's one thing. If you were choosing to look at your passenger and ran that red light, that's your fault. If you were driving too fast for the fog and didn't see that red light, that's your fault. If you dropped your cheeto on the floor and were digging for it instead of watching the road and run the red light, it's your fault.

Sometimes it can be impossible to discern negligence. There are faulty tires that blow out even though the driver inspects them and keeps the psi where it should be. You may not be able to tell what happened in a given situation. I get that. But when negligence, and especially gross negligence, is obvious, I do consider it a murder.

I don't watch MMA so I don't know how it usually works. But if someone is swinging and the match ends before he makes contact, that's not really his fault. If the match has been over for seconds, there's a good chance, I might think, that the opponent may have lowered his guard, and a hit at that point could very well be considered a criminal act. If it's bad enough to kill someone, yes, that does sound like murder to me. Like I said, I'm not familiar with how MMA works, and some things are different in that arena, as it is a situation where both people are willingly trying to hurt the other one, and both are consenting to it. But if something is really outside the bounds of what is accepted, then that changes things, I would think.

 

I always toss the libertarian philosophy around my head with what we have today. I went through a DUI checkpoint when I was 19. Wasn't drunk, but didn't have my ID on me and as a result went to jail. They were going to put me in jail the second they pulled me out of the car. I passed the sobriety tests. While I was passing the last test I saw my car being towed away, and just could not believe the extent of our police state. All charges were eventually dropped, but the damage has been done from DUI "pre crime."

The people have sacrificed their freedom for security when they let Mothers Against Drunk Drivers have their way, and our rights have eroded away for the sake of safety. Read a story last year about one of the original founding mother members getting a DUI. Nice.

People are killed every day by drunks, and drunks are giving more and more opportunities to correct their actions, and rejoin society. Even after they take a life we again as a society allow them to reenter the free world.

I believe texting and driving to be far worse than DUI. I'd love to see some data that reflects people killed by someone texting and driving, and if that person had been cited for texting and driving before. Writing tickets to correct reckless behavior is not enough. We have to enforce the laws already in place. The driver that this thread is all about is the posterchild, and we failed to make an example out of him. @Hurst did put it very well. This is a slippery slope, but over 400 texts in 6 hours of on duty time???? Come on!

A person texting and driving, or running a red light is not going to kill someone out of malice. They aren't intentionally hurting anyone, per se. But some do eventually take a life because they were negligent, unsafe, inattentive, reckless, etc. Call it what you want. I'm not supporting the lynching of every person that ran a red light and killed someone, but if we have a pattern of a continues red light offender. Tickets over and over again for running reds and they finally kill someone. I'd like to put that kind of person behind bars.

I ran a red the other day. Wasn't intentional. Just timed it wrong and blasted my air horn because I couldn't stop in time. I think they should of had a slower limit for that road. In addition to a red light warning signal ahead and I really love the crosswalk countdown timers. They are big enough to see far away and take the guess work out. I've even started stopping on a green because I could see the timer way up and took advantage of a nice, safe, smooth stop.

Like I said, I often think about what a Libertarian society would look like, because as a whole, this world is far from it. And, I could only dream of what that would look like. I applaud @ChaoSS for carrying the torch. Hopefully one day we can start all being responsible citizens. Seems like the current trend now is let the murderers and rapists out of jail before the pot smokers.

 

I'd like to make something clear about my comments.

I am in no way suggesting we ignore or be light handed with offenders. I am sickened by people who text and drive.

How ever... I believe that the majority of people will learn from their mistakes. I dont beleive locking someome up for 30, 20 or even just 10 yrs serves justice to anyone other than out of anger and resentment for their loss.

Now a habitiual offender? Yes sir.. that shows a lack of concern or respect for common decency. Plus I would assume they refuse to accept responsibility for their actitions. They have shown a pattern of behavior.

Locking away a 1st time offender is something that does not make sense to me.

Hurst

 

I believe James Holmes was a first time offender.

No, it's not the same thing. Not even in the same ballpark, though there were multiple deaths. It's also not the same thing as a 1st time shoplifter.

Where in the middle it falls I'm not sure. The intent to kill wasn't there but the degree of negligence is unacceptable. 472 text messages, wow. Complacency about driving doesn't get much worse than that.

Harsher sentences aren't about justice, they're about acting as a deterrent.

I'm just sick of senseless accidents like this one.

 

Everyone wants to judge the situation yes the guy screwed up but it was on purpose everyone says anything now until they or someone else is in the same situation hoping to get the same punishment