There were no consequences for her.
Yeah, but one would also hope those people could take responsibility instead of making excuses.
Try harder next time.
Well, she wasn’t charged with anything. What was she supposed to do? Ask to be jailed? I’m having a hard time seeing any seventeen year old really knowing what to do in that situation. If she had been drunk or reckless, yes, I’d be more likely to condemn her. But I just see her as ultimately unlucky–sometimes bad stuff really does happen. I’ve known a couple of people who, when driving hit people (and weren’t at fault). If those people had died, I suppose they could have said to have “taken a life” but I really think it’s stretching the truth to put it that way. It’s unfortunate but I don’t see thee point of trying to go out of your way to condemn someone for what was ultimately just a mistake.
She was reckless. She blew through a stop sign. It wasn’t bad luck, it was reckless driving.
Won’t that look nice on the commemorative plate!
I am no fan of the Bush’s, but they are harldy cartoon characters. I have no doubt that Laura Bush felt remorse and still does. It is unfortunate that she tries to explan away some of the details, but honestly thats her issue, not mine.
And shit.
Yep. If you ever need to kill somebody and get away with it, get in your car.
Very good point.
Again we have this notion that death on the roads is often “just a mistake,” or “an accident,” and that therefore nobody is to blame.
Most accidents are very much the fault of at least one of the people involved. If you’re driving, and you make a mistake which leads to a collision and injury, that IS your fault! Your mistake=your responsibility, on the road as in other areas of life. Just because it wasn’t your intention does not mean you are not to blame.
Umm, I don’t think anyone thinks that referring to something as a “mistake” or an “accident” absolves anyone of blame. It is all about intention. Laura Bush showed little responsibility and poor judgement as a 17 year old, that was her mistake and it is her fault. But she certainly had no intention to kill someone that night and therefore does not deserve to be villified as if she were a murderer. The fact is that ACCIDENTS do happen, people are fallible…all the time. it does not absolve blame, but in my consideration, intention is a vital part of understanding any event.
This just in! A 17-year-old did something stupid and careless! I’d be more surprised to find somebody who didn’t at that age.
I certainly did some stupid and careless things when I was 17. I’ll bet you did too. It was indeed bad luck that when Laura did a stupid and careless thing at 17, it ended up having a tragic outcome.
That doesn’t mean she was blameless, or that her recounting of the incident in her book isn’t clumsy and artless. But I do pretty much get where she’s coming from, that a confluence of factors, including her own carelessness, led to somebody’s death, and that it’s been a tough thing to live with ever since. I’m not sure what else you want from her, really.
And the fact that she later married a man who went on to become a shitty president is completely irrelevant. I suspect that it’s mostly W haters stepping up to bash her over this, and that isn’t fair.
Mostly it shows that W was even incompetent at picking a wife.
Her blowing through the stop sign was the one and only thing that caused the accident. If she’d stopped at the sign, it wouldn’t have happened. No other alleged contributing factors would have mattered if she’d just stopped at the sign.
Yes. it’s true that would not make her any different than thousands of other teenagers (which is why I think teenagers should not be allowed to drive, but that’s another issue), but the least she could do is own it in retrospect, and not try to absolve herself.
Since we’re not seeing the quote in context, it’s possible she’s deflecting some of the blame by talking about the car. But the bile being posted here is ridiculous.
His driving off the bridge was the one and only thing that caused the accident. If he’d stayed on the bridge, it wouldn’t have happened. No other alleged contributing factors would have mattered if he’d just stayed on the bridge.
I can understand not wanting people to bring up an unrelated matter when discussing Laura Bush’s accident, but your subsequent spinning of the two incidents is making you look foolish.
Recommence spinning.
That was my interpretation of the Freudian post I quoted. She was “just unlucky.” NO. It’s not just a roll of the dice. She was at the wheel, she made choices which affected the outcome.
I have certainly heard “it wasn’t his fault, it was an ACCIDENT!” plenty of times outside SDMB, as well.
NO. It is not all about intention. It is also about what people do, and the consequences of their actions.
Who said she’s a murderer? I didn’t see that here, and I’m not saying that.
I am saying that she was a criminally reckless driver who killed someone, and she deserved to be jailed for it. (Nothing to do with politics, here; I think the same of other killer drivers who get away with it.)
Prove there was negligence involved in driving off the bridge. Also, please explain how that would negate Laura Bush’s own negligence in blowing through a stop sign.
Maybe driving off a bridge into a river us intentional? Would that make the death of a passenger a murder?
She shouldn’t have blown through the stop sign, no. True, I was wrong to say it was just an accident beyond her control. I guess I can’t help thinking that maybe she thought no one was there, maybe it was a stop sign people just didn’t use–stupid mistake, but I still can’t characterize her as having taken a human life, as though she’s a murderer. Her reckless driving caused a horrible accident. But I’m not seeing the evidence that she’s happy with her choice or anything like that. Maybe she feels terrible about it–who knows, really, what’s in her heart?
Every single one of us takes our eyes off the road for one reason or another many times during every drive. Maybe we glance at the speedometer, or react to what a passenger says, or who knows what else might cause it. It might be a ‘good’ reason, or a ‘bad’ one. But if it happens at just the wrong moment, as some other vehicle is entering the situation, we may be suddenly toast. In that sense, anyone can be unlucky and contribute to a death on the road.
What jumped out at me was not so much the recklessness of a 17-year-old (that is all too common) so much as the continued rationalizations of a however-old-she-is-now adult (admittedly also all too common, but that’s the new part of the old story).