[Newsbot]

Title: Vancouver driver behind deadly crash fined $1,500
Category: Law & Order
Posted By: Strutz
Date: 2012-08-02 10:42:06
Canadian

[DrCaleb]

No X-Box house arrest? Wow, lives come cheap nowadays.

[Strutz]

Yes, yet another sensible decision brought to you by our "justice" system.

$1:

Ryan John Stewart Miller, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to driving without due care and attention — the charge laid against him — in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court.

Under the Motor Vehicle Act, a driver found guilty of the offence could face a maximum fine of $2,000, six months in jail, or both.

So why not, at the very least, was the maximum not handed down? Shouldn't there be more to the charges considering the "without due care and attention" resulted in 2 deaths?

[andyt]

He hit a stalled vehicle on the freeway. Goes to show you have to drive as if you need to stop at any moment. But nobody does. This driver was also hit by the next person along, just didn't kill anybody. Might have been a good idea for mom to make her way to the shoulder of the road, even if her car was filling up with smoke.

I wonder how many of us could find ourselves in a similar position? Do you always give enough room to the car in front that if they slam or their brakes you can stop in time? If you do, do you not find some numbnuts will just cut into that space anyway, and you'll be pushed further and further back? How many of us obey the 2 second rule at all times?

That said the sentence does seem very mild. But even the prosecution didn't push for much more. Maybe the driver had an otherwise exemplary driving record.

[raydan]

So running away to Australia for 3 years doesn't seem to be a problem

[andyt]

Maybe the prosecutor likes him. Re-reading the story, he was in the HOV lane illegally, likely speeding to pass people in the fast lane. Not sure why he couldn't be charged with dangerous driving causing death. But he pled guilty, maybe this was a plea bargain, in which case we can blame, in part, our underfunded court system.

[Xort]

andyt andyt:

Do you always give enough room to the car in front that if they slam or their brakes you can stop in time? If you do, do you not find some numbnuts will just cut into that space anyway, and you'll be pushed further and further back? How many of us obey the 2 second rule at all times?

That's 2 seconds as a minimum guide for perfect conditions in a vehicle with a good breaking distance.

Being pushed further and further back relative and minor. In most trips adds up to a few seconds at most. I would rather have the room to stop, than shave a few seconds off my trip.

On a highway by it's nature you have clear sight lines to see far enough to make a stop or a lane change. Or in otherwords you should not be driving at a speed that you can not stop within your sight line. Not being able to stop for a vehicle that has it's 4 ways on is not acceptable.

My questions are what was his vehicle's speed and how much braking was applied? A newer BMW SUV should have a data recorder of some type. If he was making a best effort to stop and was below the posted limit at the time he started braking I can accept the seemingly light sentance. If he was over the limit or had no braking, that would be a different matter and we have laws for people that kill others by negligence.

[Hyack]

andyt andyt:

He hit a stalled vehicle on the freeway. Goes to show you have to drive as if you need to stop at any moment. But nobody does. This driver was also hit by the next person along, just didn't kill anybody. Might have been a good idea for mom to make her way to the shoulder of the road, even if her car was filling up with smoke.

I wonder how many of us could find ourselves in a similar position? Do you always give enough room to the car in front that if they slam or their brakes you can stop in time? If you do, do you not find some numbnuts will just cut into that space anyway, and you'll be pushed further and further back? How many of us obey the 2 second rule at all times?

That said the sentence does seem very mild. But even the prosecution didn't push for much more. Maybe the driver had an otherwise exemplary driving record.

Driving the freeway here and trying to leave a decent space between you and the car ahead is nearly impossible, if you go with one car length per 10 mph, yeah, miles per hour, I'm still not into metric on the hwy, you will find one or even two vehicles trying to get into that space. As for the mother, so you're in the fast, HOV, lane and your car starts to fill with smoke.........pull off the road, even if it's on the left shoulder, anything is better than stopping right on the Freeway. I put at least 50% of the blame on the mother, just for her stupidity stopping on the Freeway. As for the driver of the BMW, in his defense, there could have been a vehicle in front of him blocking his long range view of the traffic who saw the stalled van and managed to change lanes in time, leaving this idiot with nowhere to go as he had his foot heavy on the gas. Yeah, I agree the fine comes nowhere close to reality, but once again, welcome to the Canadian judicial system.

[andyt]

The HOV lane is not the fast lane, something people misunderstand. It just happens to be to the far left of the lanes, so you get the ridiculous concept of people going right to pass. I believe that's illegal because the HOV lane has solid lines between exits, ie you shouldn't leave the lane between exits. OTOH, you can't expect someone doing 100 in the HOV where the speed limit is 90 (yes kph because some of us actually managed to adapt and have cars built after 1980) to have to try to jump into the fast, ie left, lane to let somebody who wants to do 110 in the HOV lane pass. The whole concept is poorly thought out.

And there's no room for a shoulder on the left of the HOV lane that I can see, they barely managed to stick it in there. But she should have done everything in her power to try to pull to the right lane. Stopping in the middle of the freeway is just madness. Most people don't drive as cautiously as Xort seems to.

[Hyack]

You're right, it's the HOV, not the fast lane but, every time I drive the freeway, no matter which lane I'm in, it seems I'm always getting passed by people in the HOV lane, very seldom I manage to pass anyone in the HOV lane even if I'm in the middle, passing, lane. As for no shoulder, as long as it's not a ditch or barrier it's much better to pull off the road as far as possible, better than stopping on the road or trying to cross two lanes of fast moving traffic.

[herbie]

Regarless, they stopped their car in the middle of the road, they didn't pull to the shoulder, they didn't put any warning stuff out and no one even walked down the road aways to wave and warn anyone. And they had lots of time to do any one of those precautions.
The guy hit a car in an accident, he didn't fucking murder those kids. He wasn't speeding, he wasn't drunk, it was something any one of us could've done.
And he's from Vancouver. 99% of those dickhead drivers there can't see down beyond the bumper of the guy 3 feet in front. They're conditioned not to look that far down the road ahead.

[xerxes]

And who honestly expects to see a car stopped dead in a lane on the highway. Yes, one is supposed to look ahead but still. The same thing almost happened to me earlier this year. I was driving into Van across the Port Mann and just as I get over the hump I see this dumb bitch stopped dead in the right lane. Fortunately I saw her, but I feel for the guy in the article.

Look at the picture in the article; it was a rainy day along a stretch of highway that's always full of traffic.

Yes, it's terrible that two children are dead, but the sentence, however crummy and lax as it seems, is correct. There was no malice here. no impairment, no recklessness, just a series of unfortunate events.

Also, the accident took place on a Saturday. The HOV lane rules don't apply on the weekend.

[Gunnair]

xerxes xerxes:

And who honestly expects to see a car stopped dead in a lane on the highway. Yes, one is supposed to look ahead but still. The same thing almost happened to me earlier this year. I was driving into Van across the Port Mann and just as I get over the hump I see this dumb bitch stopped dead in the right lane. Fortunately I saw her, but I feel for the guy in the article.

Look at the picture in the article; it was a rainy day along a stretch of highway that's always full of traffic.

Yes, it's terrible that two children are dead, but the sentence, however crummy and lax as it seems, is correct. There was no malice here. no impairment, no recklessness, just a series of unfortunate events.

Also, the accident took place on a Saturday. The HOV lane rules don't apply on the weekend.

Agree with everything.

You missed the whole fleeing the country for three years though.

[xerxes]

There is that...

From what I read, he said he didn't know there was a warrant out for him at the time. If that's a lie, then that changes everything.

[Gunnair]

xerxes xerxes:

There is that...

From what I read, he said he didn't know there was a warrant out for him at the time. If that's a lie, then that changes everything.

Didn't know, eh? Yeah I could see that, I guess. I mean why would killing two kids and paralyzingly a third in a car accident result in charges?