Old school friend of mine goes to prison for death by dangerous driving

Jez

Jez

Jez

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http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=391927

Read it in the bucks free this morning, i see there is also this thread on pistonheads about it.

Shocked to see that this has happened, and how easily it could happen to any one of us.

Has made me reflect on my attitude to driving somewhat, having seen this happen to someone who i have known for years. Drive carefully peeps :/
 
So he overtook 3 cars, at a staggering 10mph over the speed limit, and later crashed into a car which pulled out of a junction.

In what way does this make him a 'lunatic' rather than 'a scapegoat'?

From reading that article it doesn't even look like the overtake and the accident were related - as it says one of the drivers he overtook stopped and shouted at him. You don't tend to stop and shout at the scene of a fatal accident so this was presumably beforehand?

How many people here have done a reasonably safe overtake of perhaps 2-3 cars and had somebody go off on one?
 
Surely there is something which has been omitted from that article?

I can't see how any jury could convict him of death by dangerous driving for driving marginally above the speed limit and hitting a car which pulled out on him! There must be other circumstances we're not aware of.

Edit: Ah, does the article mean to imply that he hit the car pulling out whilst he was overtaking on the wrong side of the road? It really isn't very clear.
 
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i see this sort of thing all the time on the A roads up to skegness

they arent terribly wide, and frequented by lorrys, and of course being rural A roads are usually national limit 60 with lorrys and slower motorists etc.. doing 45/50 or whatever

and you'll be sat in a que, knowing full well its not safe to overtake, and see some idiot in a hot hatch who'll loose his temper and fly down the wrong side of the road overtaking the que in huge chunks.

and i allways think "how are they still driving". Guess this answer my question that people arent allways as lucky as the those i see on the roads to skegness.
 
Who says it was 2 or 3 reasonably safe overtakes?

Just because youre within 10mph of the speed limit, doesnt mean youre NOT driving like a lunatic.

Im sure the investigation showed in detail evidence that supports the sentence..
 
An unfortunate result to an inexperienced driver learning the hard way where you should and shouldn't overtake. Most people have a near miss and filled pants but some end up like this.
 
Adz said:
I can't see how any jury could convict him of death by dangerous driving
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'Look, Jury! This young hooligan in his fast car overtook 3 people over the speed limit! Then crashed!'

Just takes the right number of numpties on the jury...
 
[TW]Fox said:
How many people here have done a reasonably safe overtake of perhaps 2-3 cars and had somebody go off on one?
Click to expand...

how many people have pulled off un-safe overtakes and got yelled abuse, and rightly so ?

i do agree with some of your posts, that calling him a "lunatic" is somewhat excessive

but for gods sake theres no need to pull stunts like that. Just be patient and wait till its safe.
 
Even though overtaking is a 'own risk' thing to do, in the insurance eyes if someone pulls out onto a road and something crashes into them then its the guys who pulled out fault....

So why should it be any diff ref him crashing and killing someone.
 
Just a thought but is it possible the reason he was overtaking was because mabie the car in front was mabie doing 40mph in the 60 limit, and the dude coming from the side road saw they were going slow pulls out and how obviously didnt see the accused doing 70 coming around the other cars
 
[TW]Fox said:
How many people here have done a reasonably safe overtake of perhaps 2-3 cars and had somebody go off on one?
Click to expand...

how many people have pulled off un-safe overtakes and got yelled abuse, and rightly so ?

i do agree with some of your posts, that calling him a "lunatic" is somewhat excessive

but for gods sake theres no need to pull stunts like that. Just be patient and wait till its safe.

and it quite obviously wasnt safe, as the accused had an accident at that very junction before, so knew how dangerous it was

like so many others, he got impatient and pulled out when it wasnt safe.
 
MrLOL said:
how many people have pulled off un-safe overtakes and got yelled abuse, and rightly so ?
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Lots, hopefully.

but for gods sake theres no need to pull stunts like that. Just be patient and wait till its safe.
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But we don't know if it was safe - the facts we have make no reference to that. All they would have had in court was witness testimoney.

How many old people in Fiesta's would deem some of the overtakes you guys have performed in complete safety in high powered cars 'dangerous'?
 
Again we're not sure of the facts.
However a few possible thoughts are:
- Did the driver attempt to overtake all three in one go? If so, then if he was only doing 75 infers to me that he was probably sat on the wrong side of the road for quite a while, which is something I'd feel very uncomfortable with. Personally I'd rather deal with the overtake ASAP, thus getting me back to my side of the road in good time.
- If there was a junction ahead, it WILL have been signposted. I'd expect any normal driver to take that into account when planning an overtake. Whilst logically we may point the figure at the wally who pulled out without really looking, contributing to the accident by conducting an overtake near a junction is not very clever.
 
We can't really pass judgement since we haven't heard all the facts but why the hell was he overtaking in front of side roads and where he himself had an accident previously. That sounds dangerous to me.
 
Adz said:
Edit: Ah, does the article mean to imply that he hit the car pulling out whilst he was overtaking on the wrong side of the road? It really isn't very clear.
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Thats exactly what happened according to other mates who spoke to him after the incident, but before the court appearance.
 
Exactly old people drive slow cause they don't think its safe to go any faster, so if someone overtook and never went over the speed limit then it would still be unsafe, get enough of those in court and you're going to get locked up!

The idiots who do 30 in a 60 or can't actually drive according to the road or feel they can't should not have a driving licence.
 
It doesn't say the overtake and the accident were linked though, does it?

One of the motorists he overtook before the crash was so angry afterwards that he confronted and shouted abuse at him
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Becuase if a car has just driven past you and immediatly smashed into another car, killing the driver, the first thing you'd do is have a bit of road rage...

Pretty crap article all round really :p
 
[TW]Fox said:
Lots, hopefully.



But we don't know if it was safe - the facts we have make no reference to that. All they would have had in court was witness testimoney.
Click to expand...

the accused had suffered an accident at the same spot previously

i've been involved in 2 accidents like this, both times the other persons fault. And every time i go near them i react cautiously, knowing what can happen. One was somebody who jumped a red light that wasnt particularly well sign posted. Both him and his passenger yelled abuse at us that the lights were green for them. No fault was found with the lights ..

needless to say i tread very gingerly over those crossroads now.

he should have known better.
 
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