• Guy Ingonito@reddthat.com
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    1 hour ago

    I feel for the dad.

    But you don’t prevent crime with a harsh punishment, you prevent it by guaranteeing the person gets caught.

    You know how you stop reckless driving? Automatic traffic cameras on every road that send you a nice fat fine whenever you violate the rules of the road.

    You’d save thousands of lives every year if every major road was monitored in this way.

  • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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    17 hours ago

    Necessary contempt of court is awesome and rarely heard of. Chair throw was justified.

  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    The reasoning behind it:
    “Lack of Proof for Severe Negligence: Under Dutch law (Artikel 6 Wegenverkeerswet), a heavy prison sentence for a fatal traffic accident requires proof of gross negligence or recklessness (schuld).”

    “No Evidence of Excessive Speed: Investigators could not legally prove that the driver was speeding excessively or that speed was the definitive cause of the vehicle losing control.”

    “Lesser Offense Applied: The court convicted him under a lighter traffic article (Artikel 5) for failing to keep his vehicle under continuous control rather than aggravated manslaughter or fatal recklessness, which capped the legal punishment guidelines significantly.”

    The original 120-hour sentence was itself overturned upon appeal in September 2015. The higher appeals court concluded that excessive speed was legally proven, sentencing the driver to 15 months in prison and a four-year driving ban.

    In 2020 the traffic laws were overhauled to increase penalties and expand what constituted reckless driving. A penalty points system was also implemented.

    • jdr@lemmy.ml
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      20 hours ago

      What a high quality comment. Whatever they’re paying you, it isn’t enough.

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      13 hours ago

      In 2020 the traffic laws were overhauled to increase penalties and expand what constituted reckless driving.

      why do they always use weasel words ? all the evidence you need is a dead person, you killed someone, ipso facto you weren’t paying attention ,automatic manslaughter charge. Murder would have a higher bar. eg

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-08/woman-charged-with-manslaughter-over-trevor-fleet-death/107241342

      • pomp@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Not quite that simple.

        I’m one of the few drivers who always drives as if expecting the unexpected. I try to never even put myself in a situation where someone could jump out in front of my car and die (by slowing down when passing pedestrians for example).

        But that being said, there is only so much I can do. Maybe some day one of you retards will get yourselves killed and use my vehicle to do it. I don’t want to be held accountable for your follies.

        • niva@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 hours ago

          So you think the 2 grandparents hid somewhere and then jumped with their bikes and their toddler grandchild in their arms in front of the speeding car?

          • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            He didn’t say “in this case, it’s clear that…” he said “all the evidence you need is a dead person.” Pedestrians can never be at fault? BRB I’m gonna go jump in front of a car and set my family up for life

  • hubobes@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    Why does it matter if there was speeding involved or not? You killed cyclists, it shouldn’t matter how that happened. Only exception would be intended or not.

    • nwtreeoctopus@sh.itjust.works
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      20 hours ago

      Because it does matter how it happened. Most legal systems, as well as most people’s moral judgements on the issue, are going look at the totality of the circumstances.

      Someone going 3x the speed limit is creating a more dangerous situation and should face a higher penalty than someone who was, say, following all the rules but sneezed and accidentally hit a cyclist.

      It doesn’t feel reasonable to say someone who gets wasted and swerves into a cyclist has the same degree of responsibility as someone who fails to see the victim. Both bad, but drunky made worse choices and introduced more danger. Similarly, speeders have less time to react, lower levels of control, and have exponentially increased the impact forces in a crash.

      Obviously, intentionally hitting someone and killing them is the worst but personal choices that increase risk raise culpability.

      • Avicenna@programming.dev
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        19 hours ago

        Indeed, he killed while going %150 over the speed limit. That should be considered reckless/gross negligence manslaughter and shouldn’t be punished with just community service. It should be punished with jail time and they should make public service announcements out of events like this so people don’t act like idiots.

        I suppose if the offender was an immigrant, they would make him bleed out of his ass.

          • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            substantially increased

            what, 125 hours instead of 120?

            clearly the defense had a good lawyer. I would be suing for every penny to their name and use it to vindictively smear the defense for the rest of their lives with the money.

            new job? new billboard outside your job with your face plastered on it calling you a murderer.

            move to a new city? ad campaign on social media within your face and name with similar message.

            the only thing that would make me feel whole is if that person feels not just remorse, but absolute unyielding despair. I don’t want them to die, I want them to want to die every moment they exist.

        • BillCheddar@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          He was clocked going 75 in a 50. That’s nothing for rural roads. In modern cars, you won’t even feel the difference at travel speed.

          For reference, I’ve been driving for 30 years and haven’t had a ticket in 20 years, and even i will look down in amazement that I am going as fast as I am. There’s nothing reckless about it, and that’s why the judge ruled this way.

          • dracc@discuss.tchncs.de
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            12 hours ago

            If you don’t notice a difference between 80 km/h (50 mph) and 120 km/h (75 mph), you shouldn’t be driving.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            if you can’t tell the difference between 75 in a 50 it’s time to turn in your license.

            seriously, do it before you murder or maim someone.

          • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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            18 hours ago

            75mph on rural roads? I’ve also been driving for 30 years, and have done a lot of that on rural roads. You are out of your mind if you don’t feel the difference between 50 and 75. On the interstate, with zero traffic? Maybe. On a winding rural road? Bullshit.

            • BillCheddar@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              I like how you just assume I am wrong instead of thinking that maybe your dumbass doesn’t understand that rural roads aren’t all curvy.

              See a therapist about the narcissism. All of you, really.

              • motoxjake@lemmy.zip
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                15 hours ago

                There is no assumption. They think you’re opinion is wrong and so do I. Deal with it and don’t resort to childish name calling because an internet stranger told you what they think of your opinion. Maybe talk to someone about your anger issues too.

              • Avicenna@programming.dev
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                15 hours ago

                It is not just about curviness though, chance of death for a hit pedestrian sharply increases after 40mph and is practically 100% at above 60mph. To be fair it is also quite high at 50mph so this is not just an issue of “if he went with 50 they certainly wouldn’t die” (though they would have had better chance for sure). But this is to say, when they put these limits, they don’t just pull them out of their asses to torture drivers.

          • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
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            19 hours ago

            If you can’t tell whether or not you’re going 50% over the speed limit at what you call “travel speed”, then you should not be operating a motor vehicle. Seriously, that is not a small difference.

            • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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              17 hours ago

              Yea. I thought the whole “cant tell the difference in speed” was shit as well.

          • JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
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            18 hours ago

            He was clocked going 75 in a 50. That’s nothing for rural roads. In modern cars, you won’t even feel the difference at travel speed.

            Bullshit. If that was the case, the speed limit would just be 75 there.

            For reference, I’ve been driving for 30 years and haven’t had a ticket in 20 years, and even i will look down in amazement that I am going as fast as I am.

            Oh, well since you’re reckless and lucky I guess it’s okay.

          • Avicenna@programming.dev
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            19 hours ago

            I think this case alone already nullifies your argument. Rules like this exist for exactly this reason, not for people to say “that is fine I am a good driver so I can go faster than the rules”. I have been driving for quite a while too (10 years or so) and the fact that you can’t see a difference between 80km/h and 120km/h just means you have gotten too comfortable. 90? Quite possibly, 100 ok fine but at 120 you should already be feeling off unless you are on a highway. On top of this, attention and reflexes only wane with age, so unless situations like this are harshly punished people will keep causing accidents just like this.

            • BillCheddar@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              I didn’t say it was fine to drive like that. I said it was understandable how someone would do that and not have acted maliciously or even negligently. Cars are waaaay too smooth and it’s way to comfortable to drive them faster than they should be driven by civilians in 99.9% of contexts.

              I know I’ve been in a car with my brother and thought, “wow, we must be going 80” and he was doing well over 100. Empty highway, sunday morning, so the only risk would have been a dumbass ticket and he’s one of those entitled, connected people so it wouldn’t have even mattered. But still. I wouldn’t have agreed to ride at those speeds (and I haven’t been in his car since.)

              • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                Cars are waaaay too smooth and it’s way to comfortable to drive them faster than they should be driven by civilians in 99.9% of contexts.

                In what world does that not count as negligent?

              • Instigate@aussie.zone
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                18 hours ago

                If you’re driving a car at a speed much faster than you intended to, by definition you’re being negligent. Speedometers are very easy to check and by failing to regularly check your speed you’re acting negligently.

          • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            17 hours ago

            I had a family member that felt this way about driving. He died wrapped around a pole and took his passenger with him.

    • mobyduck648@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Looking at you Anne Sacoolas, a name that should be infamous throughout the Western world.

      For those who don’t know, this piece of crap was driving on the wrong side of the road after leaving a US base in the UK and through her extremely negligent driving killed a teenager on a moped. Instead of answering for her crime, she fled like the spineless excuse for a human being she is back to the US on a diplomatic passport. Seeing as we’re basically America’s Belarus, she never got close to seeing the inside of a British prison and the US actively refused to send her back. If you work for US intelligence you are literally allowed to kill British people in cars with impunity, they’ll even come out and bat for you when you’re caught.

      There may be no hell but I hope the rest of her days are as close to it as possible, I hope the guilt in her heart consumes her utterly and she tortures herself mentally every waking moment with what she did, but her actions reveal a callous moral vacuum of a person who no doubt only feels good about getting away with it. Shame on her name forever, shame on the US government for protecting her, and shame on the British government for folding like tissue paper instead of heeding its duty to seek justice for its citizens.

      • yucandu@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They also didn’t go after Russia after they used weapons of mass destruction on British soil.

        Rich people don’t care as long as it’s not their money being hurt.

        • mobyduck648@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Don’t even get me started, in another age the negligence with respect to Russia and its influence would be tantamount to treason. In my view Burnham must restore confidence by doing the Russia Report properly.

          Also morbid fact, when I took my A-level in physics a question on the paper involved the murder of Litvinenko by the Russian government. If I remember correctly, the question was about the nature of alpha radiation and its property of being relatively benign outside the body but disasterous to inhale or ingest, plus some calculations on the dose the poor bastard was exposed to.

    • nomad@infosec.pub
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      1 day ago

      Murder has some pretty specific conditions to apply… Maybe consider reading less /c/fuckcars and more what a capital offense entails…

      • Chl0r0f0rm_Angel@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        120 hrs of community service is insane for a “negligent killing” if that’s what you want to call it. Those kinds of rulings are reserved for billionaires.

      • blartcap_@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Not understanding that a pithy internet comment is not going to be words the same way a legal context would employ them as strict terminology is very stupid.

      • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Maybe you should spend more time on c/fuckcars and less being an ecocidal narcissist.

        Good peopdont drive cars for personal transportation.

        • TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works
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          23 hours ago

          That community took a real fucking hard and quick turn from being a group of people with a decent message about the benefits of public transportation, to some fucking brain dead idiots accusing everyone else of being a criminal for driving a car.

          • Soggy@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            It’s almost like communities built on hate reinforce your worst thoughts.

            • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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              20 hours ago

              The worst thought common among humans right now is “there’s nothing wrong with driving”. You didn’t need a community to reinforce that. The bastards profiting off the destruction of the planet will make sure it gets reinforced in every piece of media you consume in your entire life.

              When the wars over clean drinking water start, we need to send the people who wouldn’t buy a bus pass to the front lines first.

              • Soggy@lemmy.world
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                16 hours ago

                That’s the “worst common thought”? You’re a parody of an activist.

          • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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            20 hours ago

            Translation: that comm took a real fucking hard turn from being. Some polite hippies I could easily ignore into being militants who keep pointing out how my selfish choices affect other people.

              • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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                20 hours ago

                Good job proving my point, too.

                Please stay on the Internet. If you never go outside again you can’t trade my habitable biosphere or my safety for your minor convenience.

                • TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works
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                  19 hours ago

                  You’re right, I should just shoot my fucking daughter too since why bother trying to provide for her when some brainwashed goof on the Internet wants all the benefits of society without any of the underpinnings that drive it forward? Why not?

                  It’s actually, and this will surprise you incredibly, an absolute lack of empathy for people other than yourself that you lack. It’s that you think everyone is in the same situation and the solution for everyone is a train or a bus or just “better transit” But that’s not the case and it cannot be for everyone. People are being forced to live kilometers away from work, but sure they should sacrifice their lives, the families, their time, every part of the their life to “take transit” so some clown on the internet can “live in a walkable city”.

                  The other problem is you are literally online too much and brainwashed into this abusive circle of “car = bad” and spouting these big words without an ounce of actual understanding. So yes, please, touch grass and go talk to real people. There is value in what that community is trying to achieve, but what it has become isn’t going to achieve anything other than generate more hate.

          • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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            1 day ago

            The people helping destabilize the environment for their own selfish convenience aren’t random. They are pretty fucking strange though.

  • markstos@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    A friend of mine, Jessica Bullen was killed by a driver looking at the roof of their mouth in the rearview mirror when he plowed into her. The facts were not dispute. No jail time for the driver.

  • Takashiro@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    If in that position I don’t think I would throw a chair at her , first I would go deal with the guy that killed my family and is out on the street…

    If the judicial system can’t provide an adequate solution, eventually people will just solve things themselves. Which to some extent already happens, depending where you live

    • Linda R@nord.pub
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      1 hour ago

      The killer is not out on the street, though. The next level of the court system corrected the sentence to more than one year of jailtime.

      • TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        That might be enough time for the father to cool down, but I wouldn’t count on it.

        When the perp gets released, he better have his head on a swivel when crossing the road for a long time.

    • Jhex@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      That’s exactly right… the quickest way to get a normal, law abiding citizen, to become a “terrorist” is to take his family and deny him justice

  • brax@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    I assume she won’t give him any punishment… If vehicular homicide is 120h community service, and the chair this guy threw didn’t even hit anything, I mean.

    • Linda R@nord.pub
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      5 hours ago

      Vehicular homicide turned out to be over one year in jail. Please read both links in the post, not only the first one.

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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      1 day ago

      You’re probably right. I don’t think it’s a matter of a judge punishing him just like that. He will probably have a trial and some other judge with sentence him.