Y-Town Steelhound;888952 wrote:Don't try to compare apples to oranges. If you directly killed my grandma then that's one thing, but what these kids did wasn't exactly pre-meditated.
I'm not saying they should be charged with murder either. I'm fine with whatever fits by law. But whether it was pre-meditated or not, I think you are underestimating the level of intelligence it would take to understand that if a car goes blindly through a stop sign into the path of another car, there's an extraordinary risk of it turning out to be much more than a harmless prank. I can't tell from the picture, but does anyone know the speed limit of the cross traffic? If I stop and think about doing this, I can't think of a single outcome that is a) funny or b) doesn't involve some type of serious damage to someone else's either property or physical condition.
I guess I have two points here. 1. Would the people in the car have died if they had been 45 instead of 85? Chances are that age factored into the ladies not being able to see the stop sign and not being able to avoid crashing. 2. Do these kids who have a full life ahead of them deserve to have it ruined because of a stupid mistake?
1. Does not matter at all. It is ridiculous to even begin to place the blame on the driver, her age, or anything else.
2. Those are the risks you take when you do something that can so obviously get someone killed. Did the women who died, regardless of their age deserve to be victims? Do any children or grandchildren deserve to be without their grandmas right now, at this moment? Does the driver of the truck deserve whatever psychological damage comes with being a part of the accident? Life is a pretty simple process - you enjoy a lot of freedom to make your own choices until those choices hurt someone else.
I'm interested in what punishment you feel is appropriate. If you think doing some jail time is "ruining" their lives, then yes, they absolutely deserve it. I don't expect life in prison or anything, but I wouldn't cry for them if they got the maximum allowable.
Obviously I'm not absolving these guys of blame as it is incredibly stupid to cover up a stop sign. But to pretend the age of these women played no part in their death is just being unrealistic.
Misappropriating any of the blame is wrong. Chances are they'd be alive right now if the stop sign was clearly visible. That is really the only speculation that matters.