So a young person should have the opportunity to operate a high performance vehicle without having to accept the responsibility that an older driver would be expected to?

That logic makes no sense. If one were to agree with you, then young persons (under 25 or so) should not be allowed to operate any motor vehicle (or other potentially dangerous machine) until it has been determined that they are able to make good decisions. Afterall, we cannot expect them to act mature enough...

 

I GIVE UP!!! Maybe I am not wording my thoughts right, yes this person should be punished, but jail for life or fry the guy is not what I would like to see happen.

 

Calm down there hot-head. There was no insult intended, so you can stop flinging childish insults at my car. It has nothing to do with the topic at hand, so stop lashing out.

Yours just seemed like a very young view-point. Most people who have lived in 'the real world' for awhile tend to lean a little more towards the "every action has consequences" way of thinking. Your original post read like you thought we should just slap the kid on the wrist, then give him a hug and send him on his merry way. That's something I would expect to come from a younger viewpoint, that's all. If you've mis-represented your actual beliefs about what the punishment should be for killing someone, perhaps you should clarify for the rest of us.

Again, my apologies if you were insulted by my comment, it wasn't intended as such.

 

I can agree with you there. Any driver who can be shown at fault for the death of another should be punished appropriately. For life (or worse) should be out of the question unless the driver was way out of line (felony DUI, etc.).

Personally, I find street racing no more negligent that the idiot who causes an accident because they are doing something stupid (talking on cellphones, reading a paper, putting on makeup, etc.). But we all realize that street racing is high up in the public eye and will always create a huge stir when a mishap occurs. Most of the times when it causes fatal accidents is when you have younger drivers, who have much more limited driving experience.

However, age should not be a factor when considering punishment.

 

I joined a club in England when I was 12 or 13 which taught you how to drive at an early age. 90% of all cars in the UK are stick shift. I was tall but it was funny to see some of the other kids (some as young as 8) with cushions and blocks on the pedals. There were various venues every other Saturday which included a test center which had roads, streets, corners, hills, crosswalks etc etc. My favorite venue was a race track and tuition on how to take corners plus skid pans teaching you oversteer/understeer control. Needless to say by the time I took my driving test (17 years old in England) I passed very quickly. I think this was an excellent club and now I am told there is a waiting list to get in. I believe everyone should got through something like this. I definitely had less of an urge to see how fast I could go since I had spent the last 5 years hammering round a track.

One thing I notice over here is how easy the test is compared to England and the rest of Europe. They should definitely make it harder/stricter.

 

I see street racing as "way out of line". It's intentional and purposeful endangerment of others, just like a felony DUI. But that's just me.

I respectfully disagree...When you get right down to it, a car is a 3000+ pound weapon and should be treated accordingly. If you have a gun that you handle carelessly and you accidentally shoot someone, the charge might be involuntary manslaughter (I'm no lawyer, I'm just guessing and trying to draw parallels), but if you purposefully shoot a gun in public and you happen to hit someone, that would probably be considered homicide because you pulled the trigger intentionally with depraved indifference.

The parallel I'm trying to draw is that there is a difference between carelessness and recklessness, even though the end result is clear the same. We punish people based on intent every day in our courts. This is no different.

 

Well said. I could not agree more.

 

I would too had I read your comments. Just goes to show that when it comes to maturity, age is nothing but a number.

A kid goes on a joyride with utter reckless abandonment and takes a life in the process. This very outcome is what puts the homicide in a 'vehicular homicide' charge. It's just that simple in the mind of every jury, and I couldn't agree more.

We all learn lessons everyday. The smart ones just learn them from others' mistakes. This kid (and every street racer for that manner) must have heard countless such stories, so now if he spends the rest of his life (or a good part of it) in jail, neither he nor anyone else can say he didn't have it coming.

 

Didn't have time to read every post so I'm not sure if this was brought up earlier regarding the old lady, but according to the updated article, there is a slight hill on that road that makes it difficult to see oncoming traffic, so if someone is speeding greatly, someone making a left turn is a sitting duck.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p.../NEWS/61113045

To me it all boils down to if the z was street racing, if he was, then he is liable in the death. Again vehicular homicide would be the most he could get. A co-worker of mine got 7 years for that, he was drunk and it was he was driving the car that did the killing, but I would be shocked if they didn't hold this guy accountable too.

 

Agreed. And to further this point, if you poll 100 street racers, 100 of them will acknowledge that what they are doing is risky, if not plain dangerous. That said, they all do it fully aware of the hazards they are imposing on themselves AND others. To actually be the kid who ends up killing someone and say "I'm young, I deserve a second chance" is to say that you should not be held accountable for your decisions or actions because of your age. In that case, I think the driving age should be raised until youth is no longer a factor in being responsible for what you do while in control of a deadly weapon.

 

Good advice.

 

Does anybody know if they have found the Z?

 

No there's a car enthusiast for ya. You can insult me but don't insult my car dammit!!

 

LOL....It just seemed like such an odd way to respond to my post....."I don't like what you said, so...so..so...YOUR CAR SUCKS!"

And to be fair, he didn't insult me, and I really did not mean to insult him, I guess it just got interpreted wrong.

 

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What, you don't want to see if they catch and kill the Z driver? I figure they'll have Dog, the bounty hunter on him here soon!

 

One thing you are not considering... The state I work in gives you two chances at DUI. On the third you then get the felony. The first two are almost freebies. You don't lose your car, etc.

More (alot more) people die each year to drunk drivers than due to street racing. Yet, street racing is treated more harshly in the courts. It's purely political. If you are going to burn someone for racing, then you better go after the drunks with the same furvor.

I am a police officer and see this first hand. The drunks get kid gloves (as long as no death is involved or if it isn't the 3rd+ conviction. But watch out if you get caught racing. Now personally, I am very against illegal racing... But I also see fairness needs to be shown.

It isn't the police officer's fault though. You can blame politicians and the media. The officers will enforce the laws regardless of the court outcome, as it's our job.

 

update! wtf ok well this sucks... since i have a 350z sliverstone with loud *** exhaust i got pulled over in newark twice trying to go out to eat thrusday night! they were with in five mins of each other!

first after mainstreet right by deer park, i got the the police mans name and everything cuz he was asking to many questions, i was at my gfs house at the time of the accident, thats about all i told him, so he just let me go, i also told him hum.. the 350z had MD plates arnt mine BLUE FOR DELAWARE?

well about 5 mins after that before the applebees i got pulled over again by newark cops, i flipped! i told him he knew damn well i got pulled over about 5 mins prior to getting pulled over the second time, ( my friends a newark police officer they usual let others know if there doing anything + he drove by me the first time i was pulled over!) I told him to stop profiling got his name and told him if i get pulled over again tonight for this accident that happed last sunday i swear youll be hearing from my lawyers, he said somthing about my exhaust.. i laughed and told him yeah give me a ticket ill just go to the court and have a trial and they will throw it out before i make it to the court room, cost to much to have a trial then to just throw out a 50 dollar ticket, ( p.s im going to be a cop, i have a CJ degree) i threw somemore Bs at him and he let me go and said sorry ! wtf he actually said sorry about pulling me over lol! but i didnt get botherd the rest of the night, and havent since im also selling the 350z i got like 20 emails from people asking me if it was me racing

 

Chill out, dude! Of course they are profiling you. You are driving a car that is wanted! Maybe they are not 100% positive that is was a Delaware tag on the silver Z. Just let them do their job and be respectful. If it was your grandma that head been killed, you would probably want them to pull over every silver car, regardless of make. I hope you do not have that attitude when you become a cop!

 

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