# Girls bikini top gets untied and wrecks car. Acquitted? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 25, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759 "2013-11-25T16:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/81 "2013-11-26T18:59:37Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > No, I’m blaming the driver of a motor vehicle for not either having the maturity to realize that maintaining control of said vehicle is an infinitely higher priority than covering up her tits, or dressing in a manner that renders it much less likely that the question will arise. Had he exposed her tits in a less hazardous time and place I’d be all for nailing his hide to the wall; I still would be had he survived the resulting accident. The point is that there’s enough blame to go around, and the douchebag is not going to get any deader no matter what you do to him. So since he got his, we need to punish someone because we love to punish. So let’s punish the girl who wore a swimsuit to the beach! She is probably going to have nightmares about this accident for the rest of her fucking life. She probably has physical injuries that will never fully heal. BUT **MALACANDRA** wants to punish her so she needs to be punished! A teenage girl should be able to predict the behavior of the people around her and take steps to prevent others, she tempted that boy with that easily untie-able bikini top. It’s her fault! PUNISH! ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/82 "2013-11-26T19:17:19Z")
> [@lawbuff](#): > > Here is the court’s decision; > > [http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/decisions/2013/D38786.pdf](http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/decisions/2013/D38786.pdf) After reading the dissent, I’m less convinced than I was that this was an easy case. Leave aside the fact question of whether it was a “split second” reaction or a lengthy attempt at re-clothing herself, my initial reaction had been that the type of behavior this fellow had engaged in (umbrellas, feet out the window, etc.) was simply not of the type that made the top-removal predictable. But the fact that he had partially removed her top, and she kept her speed up while having the passenger redress her, makes me far less sympathetic to her position. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/83 "2013-11-26T21:27:05Z")
Reading the court document confirms what the USAToday article reported. Three separate events took place over a period of time. The first string that got untied didn’t cause the accident. The driver leans forward and asks the other passenger to retie it. That was when she should have slowed down. Even at 40mph the car would have been much more controllable. Instead she’s barreling down the road at 65mph when the second string gets untied. She takes her hands off the wheel and crashes. I do understand now why this wasn’t a criminal case. The driver didn’t do anything criminal. But her failure to properly respond to disruptive events did cause the accident and personal injuries. imho I agree with the dissenting judge. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/84 "2013-11-26T21:50:57Z")
Having read the case, I still would have agreed with the majority, though I fully appreciate the dissent. The crutial passage in the case, in my opinion, is this one from the dissent: > [@](#): > > Although the culminating act of pulling the second bikini string perhaps caused Brittany to instinctively remove her hands from the steering wheel to cover her breasts, nonetheless, the conduct was preceded by a series of incidents perpetrated by Brandon, of which Brittany was aware, which similarly interfered with Brittany’s ability to safely operate the vehicle. Having made the determination that a reasonable jury could have held that her reaction - which caused the accident - was “instinctual”, in my opinion, the appellate case is over. I do not agree that the fact that it was the last in a series of incidents in which Brandon had acted as a distracting doofus so clearly made it her duty to take prior actions, like slowing down or pulling over, so that if she did not, the jury could not reasonably apply the energency doctrine (that is, that the jury should not have been charged with this doctrine). There are two issues on the appeal: whether the jury got the evidence so wrong that the appellate court should overturn; and whether the evidence was so overwhelming that this wasn’t a “sudden” emergency, that the trial judge should not even have charged the jury with this doctrine. IMO, the majority is right on both counts (even assuming that the jury got it wrong, it did not get it wrong so badly as to be “unreasonable” and so overturned on appeal). ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/85 "2013-11-26T21:58:04Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > As for that asshole who took off her top, he deserved what he got. Sad, but that’s how karma works That’s is not how karma works. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/86 "2013-11-27T00:12:07Z")
It is commendable that there were four 19 year old teens in that car and no mention of alcohol has been in any of the news reports or the courts decision. Maybe all the PSA’s (public service announcements) are doing some good. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/87 "2013-11-27T00:36:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Maybe all the PSA’s (public service announcements) are doing some good. I doubt it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/88 "2013-11-27T00:58:43Z")
Well at least Brandon got to see her tits before he died. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/89 "2013-11-27T01:33:37Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Reading the court document confirms what the USAToday article reported. Three separate events took place over a period of time. The first string that got untied didn’t cause the accident. The driver leans forward and asks the other passenger to retie it. That was when she should have slowed down. Even at 40mph the car would have been much more controllable. > > Instead she’s barreling down the road at 65mph when the second string gets untied. She takes her hands off the wheel and crashes. > > I do understand now why this wasn’t a criminal case. The driver didn’t do anything criminal. But her failure to properly respond to disruptive events did cause the accident and personal injuries. imho I agree with the dissenting judge. That she hadn’t slowed way way down after the first string, and was having someone try to retie it while she was still driving makes me feel that she should be held culpable. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/90 "2013-11-27T05:19:39Z")
I remember summers back in my early 20s, when my friends and I would party up at the lake. We’d pile ten or twelve people into two or three cars. One friend–I’ll call her Ann–often drove one of those cars. We were going to the lake, so we were all in a variety of swim gear, T-shirts, sandals, and so on. And yes, there was plenty of beer in the trunk. Ann would put on her bikini for these trips, but she also wore a big, floppy, size XL T-shirt over it for the drive (on her, it might as well have been a dress). She claimed that she had been told by a police officer that it was illegal to drive in just a bikini. But I think it was also because she was worried that us idiots in the back seat, who may have gotten into the beer before we left, might have some ideas about untying the bikini top’s string around her neck. I wonder if this might have been a good idea for the young lady in question? At any rate, it might be a good idea for today’s young ladies who find themselves driving a group of friends to and from a beach. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/91 "2013-11-27T07:09:11Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Again, the **plaintiff** testified it was 20 seconds. The guy suing her. For lots of money. He’s got just as much incentive to lie as she does. There’s nothing in the article about testimony from the other person in the car, so who knows what the truth is? > > Personally, I don’t buy 20 seconds either. There’s no car that will track straight for 20 seconds at 65 mph, and very few highways in the NY area that are actually ruler straight for a third of a mile either. Lots of cars will track straight for way longer than 20 seconds. My new car will. My old Volvo did. There are several highways in Rockland county that have straight stretches a mile or so long. I’ve driven on them. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/92 "2013-11-27T07:22:58Z")
Still, 20 seconds is a looooooooooooong time to have your hands off the wheel. If I had to guess, I’d say that she took her hands off the wheel for longer than “a split second” but not longer than maybe 4-5 seconds. But “4-5 seconds,” while it actually is a long-ass time to have your hands off the wheel, doesn’t _sound_ very impressive, so I can see her passenger inflating the number to make it sound better. Not to mention which, it’s notoriously difficult to gauge the passage of time in this type of situation. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/93 "2013-11-27T07:26:21Z")
I agree. I was just point out that 20 seconds is a possible number. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/94 "2013-11-27T14:19:23Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Well at least Brandon got to see her tits before he died. Well, no: she was facing away from him. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/95 "2013-11-27T23:07:47Z")
True. Then it’s a tragedy of a young life wasted, or a wasted waif’s life wasted on the wrong side of a girl’s waist. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/96 "2013-11-28T02:47:13Z")
Well, we know what the season opener will be for _Law & Order: SVU_ next year. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/97 "2013-11-28T03:09:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Well, we know what the season opener will be for _Law & Order: SVU_ next year. SVU or SUV? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/98 "2013-11-28T03:23:02Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > If I had to guess, I’d say that she took her hands off the wheel for longer than “a split second” but not longer than maybe 4-5 seconds. When you are going 65 miles per hour that is 95 feet per second or 380 feet in 4 seconds. And interstate lanes are only 12 feet wide. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/99 "2013-11-28T05:03:15Z")
> [@Alba](#): > > Creepy? They were friends… > > **Handsomeharry** , she was 19 at the time of the accident… Thanks for the correct. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759/100 "2013-11-28T07:18:11Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > So since he got his, we need to punish someone because we love to punish. So let’s punish the girl who wore a swimsuit to the beach! > > She is probably going to have nightmares about this accident for the rest of her fucking life. She probably has physical injuries that will never fully heal. > > BUT **MALACANDRA** wants to punish her so she needs to be punished! A teenage girl should be able to predict the behavior of the people around her and take steps to prevent others, she tempted that boy with that easily untie-able bikini top. It’s her fault! PUNISH! Are you really this stupid, or have you recently invested in a copy of _How To Be Stupid_? If the latter, congratulations - it was worth every cent. I explained that she could and should have worn something that would be less easy to untie - I didn’t say _anything_ about her “tempting” anyone :rolleyes: - but, very much more to the point, I explained that stopping p.d.q. should have been top priority _before_ covering up her tits. Oh, the poor dear is “probably” traumatised. Well, that means she shouldn’t have to account for her actions, then. Just as well it was only the douchebag that died, and not, say, a school bus queue. When you’re driving around a ton of fast-moving metal and any number of lives depend on your being in control of it, you need to be responsible. You don’t get a free pass just because you’re a “teenage girl”. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girls-bikini-top-gets-untied-and-wrecks-car-acquitted/674759.md?page=6)