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wingsandwheels

wingsandwheels

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This was on the local news this morning...unusual to see many of our cars out here during salt season.


A Boston man who police said was driving drunk the wrong way on the Mass Pike in the Back Bay has been charged in connection with the death of a man following a collision that left another injured early this morning.

A Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Philip Daniels, 33, was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes and hit a 1978 MG sports car head-on, state police said. The passenger in the MG was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver was taken to Mass General Hospital with serious injuries.

The crash happened just before 2 a.m. in the eastbound lanes outside the Prudential tunnel.

Daniels was arrested and charged with motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of alcohol, operating under the influence of alcohol causing serious bodily injury, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and wrong-way operation of a motor vehicle. Daniels will be arraigned Monday morning on the first two charges at Boston Municipal Court, according to a Suffolk County District Attorney spokeswoman.




sad (and infuriating), let's be careful.
 
Saw the same thing in the Spridget Forum along with a photo - it was a rubber bumper Midget, red.
 
not good. No I.D. on the MG driver?
 
Drunk driver murders another victim. Tragic, sad. I hope the guy in the MG died doing what he loved - driving his LBC.

Combined speed of both vehicles must have been in triple digits, not much chance of survival, period. The MG driver probably never saw the SUV until it was too late.

Best wishes to his family. :yesnod:
 
Condolences to the family and speedy recovery to <span style="text-decoration: underline">all</span> involved, BUT murder?????

It's an accident and vehicular manslaughter at best.

Let's save the usage for real murders, premeditated so that we don't dilute and desensitize the jury pool in real murder trials.
 
It's not an "accident" when the driver is drunk.

The courts may term it vehicular homicide, but that's just legal nomenclature for murder. :yesnod:

I been a volunteer for local rescue squads. Viewing one crash site and the carnage dealt by a drunk driver tends to change the minds of those who feel that such crashes are "accidents". :yesnod:
 
IMO, anytime you get behind the wheel drunk & hit another car & kill the occupants, then you used your vehicle to murder the other person/s....& the punishment should be the same as if you took a pistol & killed a couple of strangers..
 
While drunk driving is avoidable (unless you ask the person doing it, they always seem to have an excuse), I suppose whether it could be considered murder or not would be dependent upon the degree of murder that you're talking about.

1st degree should not be considered as it implies premeditation. So you would almost need proof that the offender declared that he was planning on ramming his vehicle into someone else after they leave the bar.

There have been successful convictions on 2nd degree murder charges or drunk drivers when they do cause the death of another while under the influence. Usually argued as a reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life.

Unlawful killings without malice or intent are usually considered "manslaughter", which is how most jurisdictions (but not all) see DUI/DWAI related deaths.

It is a real shame though that people can get multiple DUI/DWAI convictions without an escalation in punishment.

Just my humble opinion though.
 
Well, I don't consider it an accident! It could have been avoided if the other driver wasn't drunk!
 
Just to throw a terd in the punchbowl, what was the Midget driver doing out at 2:00 AM on the weekend night/morning, I fiquire the percentage of drunk drivers out at that time of the morning is about 50%. Wouldn't you know I heard a skid and boom last night at 2:30 AM in my front yard, turned out to be some drunk slid off the road and hit a tree in my front yard, I knew I always liked that tree :smile: Idiot was out there barefooted (30 degrees) running around, blowing his horn, but good ole trooper showed up gave him a few sobriety test then handcuffed the idiot and took him off to jail. Folded up the entire R/F corner of his car, but the tree is doing just fine :smile:


Truely sad about the Midget driver, but hey I tend to avoid driving at those times due to all the drunks out there then.
 
rlwhitetr3b said:
Hap,
Blame the victim? :nonod:
Click to expand...

No not at all, but you won't catch me out at 2:00AM on Saturday night, because the road is full of drunks at that time. Hey I used to hang out at one of my Spridget racing buddy's shop till late hours on the weekends, we'd be up there working on race car stuff, but after some idiot going 100+ mph almost hit me head on on the way home one night at about 1:00 am I rethought when I want to be on the road and when I do not. My statement was more about, it's not a good time to be on the road. Not to sound mean sprited, but how do we know the Midget driver was sober, at that time of the night I fully expect 50% of the drivers to be drunk, so do the cops.
 
Hap Waldrop said:
rlwhitetr3b said:
Hap,
Blame the victim? :nonod:
Click to expand...

No not at all, but you won't catch me out at 2:00AM on Saturday night, because the road is full of drunks at that time. Hey I used to hang out at one of my Spridget racing buddy's shop till late hours on the weekends, we'd be up there working on race car stuff, but after some idiot going 100+ mph almost hit me head on on the way home one night at about 1:00 am I rethought when I want to be on the road and when I do not. My statement was more about, it's not a good time to be on the road. Not to sound mean sprited, but how do we know the Midget driver was sober, at that time of the night I fully expect 50% of the drivers to be drunk, so do the cops.
Click to expand...

Is there an off chance that the occupants of the Midget had also been out imbibing? Methinks there is.

This does not lessen the situation one iota...I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here.
 
Hap Waldrop said:
No not at all,
Click to expand...

I hoped that was the way you meant it.

rick_ingram said:
Is there an off chance that the occupants of the Midget had also been out imbibing? Methinks there is.

This does not lessen the situation one iota...I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here.
Click to expand...
I wondered that also.
 
rlwhitetr3b said:
Hap Waldrop said:
No not at all,
Click to expand...

I hoped that was the way you meant it.
Click to expand...

Hey Rich, I think I told you what I meant, and that should be good enough, man, I really trying to be on my best manners here, so hopefully this will be the end of this. You know where I'm from, not taking man at his word is considered an insult.
 
Well I am sure glad that I live in America. With laws on the book sand not the fancy whims of the general public.

I am almost certain that the drunk driver did not go out intending to kill someone that night and no jury will convict him of murder.

Shouting around on the internet and claiming murder is a true injustice to the poor souls that were actually murdered.

There s a reason our courts have manslaughter, premeditation, lay in wait, etc in their vocabulary.

I shall now exit the stage left.

Regards.
 
In keeping with this not being a debate forum, I'm locking this thread. We are all entitled to our opinions. Nuff said.
 
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