What I’m about to say in no way excuses her for what happened. She killed 2 children due to her negligence and she needs to account for it.
But they had a better defense with the car she was driving. They weren’t racing in the classical sense of street racing. Her car was capable of significantly higher speeds. It would accelerate from 35 to 80 quickly with a touch of the throttle with no massive sense of acceleration. For all practical purposes 80 feels like 35 and it’s likely they were passing through town unobstructed on the main thoroughfare. If she threw herself on her sword she might have fought the malice argument. Not much sympathy from me for killing 2 kids.
I regularly drive through a lot of small towns where the speed limit changes and I’m highly focused on where that occurs. I imagine a significant number of drivers blow through them without realizing when the zone changes. Particularly at night.
The headlines stand out more when the word “socialite” is used but she could have been any schmuck driving through town and the negligence would have been the same.