Yet another texting driver kills someone.

Again, all I can say is FUCK!

This lump of emulsified mummy crap fucks around with text messaging while driving his car, hits and kills a 13 year old kid, and is now waltzing around town on a mere $5,000 bail.

The only mitigating factor here is that vehicular homicide charges are on his court dance card. One wonders if the DA will actually have the nerve & balls to follow through on that one. Oh, and did we mention he was driving without a license?

Oh, the murdering fucker is ‘remorseful’, for the moment at least. Wonder how long that will last?

Murder? He acted with malicious aforethought? What happened was bad enough and the guy’s a tool for killing the kid and then splitting but don’t make it worse than what it was.

Yes, murder. Murder as a result of neglect.

Meh.

A truck driver did that in the UK a few years ago.

In court they produced his SMS records as evidence, and found that he’d texted something like “BRB just had a bit of a problem” after he’d killed his victim.

Not murder though.

From the on-line encyclopedia:

Sorry…Looks like manslaughter to me. Thoughtless and stupid, but I don’t think this is murder.

In this case, removal of the defendant’s thumbs would be appropriate…

WTF are people thinking? I like how he just thought that he hit a mailbox, so he kept on going. Um, what? You hit something; ANYTHING, you stop and freaking deal with it! I watched a Dr. Phil a while back on this topic and there was a teenaged twit on there claiming that she could drive just fine while texting. Of course, when they put her into a driving simulator, she was running people over, hitting other cars, swerving lanes, etc. Afterwards she was like “Well, that wasn’t fair- there were a lot of things happening in that simulation!” YES. Exactly like real driving!

People figure that accidents happen to other people and people not as skilled as they are. It’s too bad that other people die when they’re wrong.

Now that you’ve cleared your throat, do you have a point to make, or something to add?

A lot of things people do behind the wheel every day add up to criminally willful stupidity. I think it’s because, for modern Americans, driving feels as natural as walking, and they kinda forget that they’re operating a big heavy machine that can kill somebody in a heartbeat.

In some states, the driver could be charged with murder in the second degree. Wiki link

And only by creating a new Thread of Outrage™ for each and every incident can we ever hope to make a difference.

I’ve said it before: this senselessness will only end when all vehicles are equipped with mandatory electronic steering-wheel finger cuffs.

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought second-degree murder was the “crime of passion” thing, or something along those lines.

I don’t think so. Even in second-degree murder, there is malice aforethought. The person is suddenly struck with an intention to kill or severely injure someone, and they act on it. This is still not the same as manslaughter, where at no point is there any intention to kill anyone.

I hate hearing stories like this. I was once talking to a coworker who said she texted while driving and when I expressed shock, she hastily added that she would never text if someone else was on the road. Yeah, right!

However…

Texters are not the only people who cause these kinds of accidents, but you don’t hear about the others. When’s the last time you heard about a driver slamming into a Mac Truck while eating a Big Mac? Or a driver mowing down a pedestrian while searching for a CD to pop into the deck? Or a driver causing an accident because they were too busy yelling at their kids’ reflections in the rear view mirror? Surely these kinds of incidents happen, but we never hear about them. Probably because evidence is lacking, but also because every single one of us has been guilty of doing something as equally dumb. Doesn’t make for a very sensationalized headline when it’s a crime you’ve committed.

So while I’m all for piling on irresponsible texters, I don’t think it’s fair for us to call for their heads on a silver platter.

From the same Wiki link

IANAL but it looks like texting while driving could come under section iii.
Now I agree that there is a higher chance of a conviction under manslaughter than murder 2, but I could see a aggressive DA filing both and allowing the jury to make the call.
Kalhoun you are incorrect. I was a jury foreman on a murder trial, and we convicted on murder 2. It was not a crime of passion. Intent to kill/ premeditation was the difference.

How would that apply to a person who was texting? There is no intent or premeditation. And I don’t see how it could be classified as reckless indifference.

I can certainly see texting while driving as reckless indifference.

One thing that stood out to me in the article was the statement that the guy “had four kids with his girlfriend of 12 years”. Big fucking deal. He can screw. He and his girlfriend have their kids - he didn’t run over one of his own. What does his having 4 kids have to do with the fact that he killed someone else’s son?

Question - you have the cellphone in your hand. To me, actually calling on the cellphone requires much less attention to the phone than texting. Why not use the phone to call someone instead of texting?

I have a friend who text messages me all the time at hockey games. I hate it. I have no intention of taking my attention off of the game I paid to see to read a stupid message. If it is so blasted important, call me!

No premeditation is needed for murder 2. If there is premeditation it is by definition murder 1.
To be any type of murder it has to meet on the element of murder. Under element iii

Did the defendant intend to text? If the answer is yes, then I can argue that it was a conscious act.
Is texting while driving present an unreasonable risk of death or or serious bodily injury? Well besides the fact that someone did in fact die as a result of the driver texting, you can make the argument that if you are looking at the little screen on the phone, you are not looking out the big window in front of you. Not looking out the windshield in a moving car, IMHO, presents an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily injury.
YMMV of course, and this is why we have jury trials. Regardless of what the DA decides to charge the driver with, it is up to the 12 people in the box to make the call. While the likelihood of a murder 2 conviction is slim, I can see the charge being made.

Looking at a cell phone instead of the fucking road is ipso facto reckless indifference. It’s no different than making a decision to drive drunk. If you are operating a deadly weapon, you are responsible for being aware of where the fuck you are directing it. Taking your eyes off the road to text (or even dial) while you’re driving is like firing a gun randomly into the air. It shows a profound indifference to the lives of other people. In my opinion, it’s murder and if your child was the victim of one of these self absorbed assholes, you might feel less charitable about it.

I think texting (or even talking) on a cell phone while driving should be a felony. I’m sick of having to dodge these weaving, non-signalling, brake-slamming assholes all the time. I would favor some kind of public humiliation and/or flogging for those people. They’re nothing but a menace, no better than drunks.

And I don’t want to hear from all the people who swear they personally aren’t the least bit impaired by having a yammer box next to their heads when they drive. Drunks always say the same thing. Everybody thinks they’re special.

Incidentally, this guy had no licence so he had no right to be driving a car at all, much less thumbing tard messages to his moron friends while he was doing it. That measn he either had it suspended for some other offense (which shows a pattern of irresponsibility and a disregard for the law) or he never got one in the first place, which shows even more reckless indifference.