Frylock, did you not read my post or shayna’s post? This wasn’t an accident. This was a deliberate choice to drive by a man incapable of operating a motor vehicle. He’s just as responsible as a drunk driver.
The laws where you can’t drive up on the sidewalk and run over pedestrians.
I see your point, but I disagree. Although I was in L.A. at the time, I didn’t follow the story closely; so I don’t know the man’s history. But did he know that he was incapable of driving safely? One could say that a drunk doesn’t; but then a drunk took an active part in his incapacity. An old man who has been driving for decades simply got old.
Regardless of a person’s age, some people ‘lock up’ in a panic situation. In a panic stop situation, we all know that it’s wrong to lock up the brakes. If the tires are slipping, then there is no traction. But people still stand on the brakes. Why? Because they’re focused on whatever it is they’re about to hit and don’t react by saying ‘Oh, I’m skidding. I’d better let up on the brakes so that I can get traction and come to a stop.’ They stand on the brakes and keep sliding. So someone in a panic stop situation who accidentally steps on the accelerator is likely to press harder for the same reason. It’s not a common occurance, but it does happen. In spite of the legal findings that Volvos suddenly accellerated and the driver standing on the pedal was not the cause of accidents 15 years ago, I still believe (based on testing that was performed at the time) that those accidents were caused by the drivers mistaking the gas for the brake.
Now, I don’t really like the term ‘accident’. There’s usually a chain of events leading up to a crash. Someone is impatient and tries to ‘get around’ traffic. That puts him in a situation from which he can’t recover. But then I was rear-ended by a girl who looked down to play with her radio when I was stopped in traffic in front of her. I’ve been backed into by a woman who changed her mind about a left turn and didn’t look behind her. Were those ‘accidents’? They were not intentional. But they could have been avoided had the drivers been paying attention.
Should Weller have been driving? Possibly not. (As I said, I haven’t followed the story close enough to know about his past driving.) If he mistook the accelerator for the brake is it because he was an old man who shouldn’t have been driving? Or is it something that could have happened to anyone?
In our society someone must always be to blame. Retribution must be exacted. Ten people are dead because an old man made a mistake. But a mistake it was. He did not intentionally run into those people. It was an accident. An avoidable one sure, but still an accident. The world is not a safe place, and often bad things happen. Is Weller responsible? Definitely. Is he a criminal? I think he’s an old man, who probably shouldn’t have been driving, who made a mistake. He is civilly liable.
But ten people are dead. Someone must pay! His ‘lack of remorse’ can be due, as stated before, to advice from his lawyers to not admit guilt (i.e., to claim that it was only an accident). I’m not sure how being sorry would have hurt his case, but I’ve heard the legal system can be strange. He wasn’t drunk, and he didn’t set out to kill anyone that day. Without knowing his driving or mental history, I have to say that imprisonment is not an appropriate punishment.
But there is punishment. He knows he killed people. He’llhave to live with that for a short time. And he must be financially ruined. I daresay that every asset he has that does not go to his lawyers will go to the families of his victims. He deserves to pay compensation; but I don’t think there needs to be vengeance.
The law for which he was convicted: negligent manslaughter. It was broken 10 times.
I didn’t see exactly what law he was charged under, but under the California Penal Code, there are different severities of vehicular manslaughter. (Cal. Penal Code Sec. 192, IIRC; the penalties are listed under Sec. 193). The one which I had assumed he was charged under was killing someone while driving during the commission of a crime not arising to the level of a felony. (Cal. Pen. Code 192(3)(a)) During the trial, the prosecution argued that Weller was leaving the scene of an accident when he went into the farmer’s market, which would be the underlying crime. Additionally, if the street had been blocked off by the city or the police, going through the barricades, as Weller did, might also have been a crime.
Yes, it was an accident. I’m certain that Weller didn’t intend to kill those people. However, it was an accident that led to the level of criminal culpability. This is exactly what the jury found when they found him guilty of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. The deaths were the result of negligence and not an intention. But it was negligence so extreme that it’s criminal. Yes, he must pay because he broke the law and killed people, accident or not.
The prosecutor in this case said it best in his closing arguments when he said that
(from LA Times, 10/6/06, p. 4)
Ugh.
SHE. The prosecutor was a she. And it was HER closing arguments.
You guys didn’t show that he knew or should have known he was incapable of operating a vehicle. Did he have a past history of accidents? Is he known to have taken notice of diminishing capacities? And so on.
Just knowing his own age does not suffice. There are older people who can drive, and there are older people who can’t drive. Anyway, the older people themselves are not necessarily going to be the best judge of this. How could they be?
When I am sober, I know very well that by getting drunk I incapacitate myself. Even after I’m drunk, it’s such a well-established commonplace fact that drunk people shouldn’t drive that there’s no way I can escape responsibility for knowing this, even when my capacities are diminished by alcohol. But there’s no such well established commonplace in the case of older people driving. So, again, just knowing one’s own age does not suffice to make one responsible for knowing one is “too old to drive.” There’s no such thing as “too old to drive”: each case is different.
So it’s going to take more to make a convincing case that the guy knew or should have known he should not be driving. Had trusted friends or relatives told him so? Was his eyesight clearly failing? etc.
-FrL-
Something I missed from this thread: the claim that he deliberately swerved to miss some things but refused to swerve to miss people.
I was wondering if this claim can be confirmed by others.
-FrL-
It’s not that he may or may not have been a bad driver due to his age, it’s that the law and everyone else requires that he be a competent driver and act accordingly. A reasonable person with the same skills and abilities should have been able to prevent the accident from happening and should have foreseen the consequences of driving 1000 feet hitting people and swerving to avoid other cars. Weller didn’t. He didn’t even hit the brake; a body had to become lodged in his wheels to stop his car.
His defense was never that he was senile or too old to know what was going on, which would have negated the mens rea, but rather that he “panicked” and couldn’t tell the difference between the accelerator and the brake. That is negligence, regardless of his age.
At this point he has been convicted, but still did not apologize between being found guilty and sentencing. (I know he is incapacitated, but I was not aware he was in a coma.) In any case, there was no dispute that he did kill people. The issue was his culpability. I’d expect that a statement saying he felt for the families of those who were killed could have been made without admitting guilt.
(bolding mine)
minor nit: Those were Audis
And also wouldn’t be an expression of remorse, so would not be satisfactory to those who demand that there should have been one.
Anyway, I’m starting to sound pedantic here, just because I’m responding to each post and this makes me look insistant. I don’t feel as insistant as I look.
-FrL-
That’s okay. I wonder, though, what his legal advice was. I can see someone refusing to take any responsibility or blame for what happened.
I stand corrected.
Yeah but it was an accident wasn’t it?
Hell, even he hangs out with dopers !!
What’s shameful is that this occurs to almost 500,000 people everyyear in the USA. Negligent, care-less drivers hurt or kill others and get away with it. I am one who was almost killed by a 70 year old who crossed the center line. In PA he plead guilty, paid his $108 fine for my over $50,000 of medical bills. No lawyer would give me my day in court (civil or criminal) to get some closure. Where’s the justice?
It took you five years to get worked up about it? Talk about a slow burn!
edited to add: By the way, the dude died two years back.
What’s the point of an apology? Is it going to bring people back? All you accomplish by putting him in jail is to further burden the prison staff that are overburdened now.
It’s like if I have terminal cancer and a year left to live and murder 10 people without remorse. I’m going to die long before you can execute any death penalty.
It’s like if I’m poor and go to the hospital knowing darn well I can’t pay. If it’s serious enough I get treated for free.
Sometimes that’s the way it just works out