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

Fr0dders · 16 May 2007 at 16:03

[TW]Fox said:
It doesn't say the overtake and the accident were linked though, does it?

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

see my post above

i was the victim of just an incident. Guy was driving a 350Z, he obviously thought he was some kind of god because he was driving a 350Z, and overtook somebody doing 50mph in a 30. He then proceeded to race up to the back of me (doing 35) and proceeded to tailgate me like mad, snaking all over the place. He tryed to pull an overtook manoevre on me, but despite the power of the 350Z, he was arrogant and stuffed it up and went into the back of me when he ran out of room. I thought he was doing past so braked to make room for him, he changed his mind and braked, but not quick enough so rear ended me.

The person he'd overtaken further back and witnessed all of this, pulled up behind both of us and began yelling abuse at him before i'd even got out of the car. Granted this accident wasnt fatal, but at the precise moment you see the impact and decide to get out and have a go, you dont know whether the accident was fatal or not.

SpKM3 · 16 May 2007 at 16:05

[TW]Fox said:
'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...

Tell that to the deceased friends and family.

[TW]Fox · 16 May 2007 at 16:09

SpKM3 said:
Tell that to the deceased friends and family.

I doubt we will ever know if the accident happened becuase the driver was driving recklessly or the victim simply pulled out without looking.

Jez · 16 May 2007 at 16:12

[TW]Fox said:
I doubt we will ever know if the accident happened becuase the driver was driving recklessly or the victim simply pulled out without looking.

The guy was a fast driver, i dont know all the details but i know how fast he would have been traveling along that stretch. No way was he doing 75

I am convinced that it was completely his fault, what i am not convinced about is the prison sentance for something as accidental as this, people get less than this for stabbings for christs sake.

Mr_White · 16 May 2007 at 16:13

A lunatic, maybe not.

But if there was a junction, an idiot who made an extremely bad decision, yes.

It would have probably not happened if he'd of been going way over the speed limit instead of 10mph, that's too slow for an overtake for me.

I've yet to come across any junction at a suitable piece of road to overtake on that isn't clearly visible or sign posted, and by that I mean a piece of road that gives you enough visibility of the on-coming lane and enough length to get past, obviously if there's a junction it's a no go.

I highly doubt he didn't see the junction.

And on the other hand, the deceased clearly wasn't paying attention and didn't look, if it went how the story says.

2 Years is reasonable, I doubt he'll serve all of it.

moss · 16 May 2007 at 16:20

Old friend of mine is serving 7 years for death by dangerous driving along with a whole load of other stuff related to the accident, idiot.

L0rdMike · 16 May 2007 at 16:22

Ive overtaken about 5 cars or so before in one go.

Not my fault people dont leave enough gap so I can go one car at a time.

4T5 · 16 May 2007 at 16:22

Adz said:
Surely there is something which has been omitted from that article?
.

It says quite clearly that the guy was banned from driving for 3 years, i think this had a factor on sentencing.
Tragic incident all round & i am pretty sure it could happen to most of us, either be hit & killed or overtake a few slower cars and hit someone.
Being banned got him the Prison sentence in my opinion.

[TW]Fox · 16 May 2007 at 16:24

malc30 said:
It says quite clearly that the guy was banned from driving for 3 years, i think this had a factor on sentencing.
Tragic incident all round & i am pretty sure it could happen to most of us, either be hit & killed or overtake a few slower cars and hit someone.
Being banned got him the Prison sentence in my opinion.

He was disqualified as part of his sentance, not already disqualified.

Durzel · 16 May 2007 at 16:27

[TW]Fox said:
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'?

You don't know the full facts of the trial, nor does anyone here I doubt.

It's possible for you to be driving recklessly regardless of speed.

Death by Dangerous Driving is a very hard conviction to make stick (as I have read and been told by personal friends who are cops).

[TW]Fox · 16 May 2007 at 16:28

http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/tipoffs01.htm

Very interesting read.

Especially when combined with this snippet of information from the Pistonheads thread:

Matthew Wooldridge, 21, overtook three vehicles on the road between West Wycombe and Stokenchurch before smashing into a car that emerged at the junction of Chipps Hill near Piddington.

Someone then points out..

The A40 between West Wycombe and Stokenchurch is 10 miles away

So the overtake and the accident were.. 10 miles apart? What relevance then did they have to the accidnet?

4T5 · 16 May 2007 at 16:28

[TW]Fox said:
He was disqualified as part of his sentance, not already disqualified.

Wrong again a, Pfffff, Thanks for the correction mate

PMKeates · 16 May 2007 at 16:38

That's more than an interesting snippet of information Fox!

AndrewP · 16 May 2007 at 16:43

A bit difficult to make a judgment on the article itself, but I think death by dangerous driving can be too broad, going from essentially murder with a car as the weapon to an accident or mistake resulting in fatality(s).

Possible location: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=51.6391&lon=-0.8453&scale=25000 which is between West Wycombe and Stokenchurch.

I've always wondered who has right of way though, someone overtaking or someone pulling onto the major road, does it switch depending on how far through the manouevre the cars are?

There's a similar spot near me, the straight main road with good visibility and a T-junction for the airport (i.e. very busy at times) and no way would I overtake if there's a car waiting on the side road. It's dicey enough with people pulling out in front of you anyway.

Muncher · 16 May 2007 at 17:15

It's impossible to speculate without knowing the fact, which NONE of us will. It's a very difficult to secure a conviction for such an offence and would require substantial evidence from experts.

Remember this was a jury verdict, which was almost certainlya unanimous verdict also....

Meridian · 16 May 2007 at 17:25

[TW]Fox said:
http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/tipoffs01.htm

Especially when combined with this snippet of information from the Pistonheads thread:

Someone then points out..

So the overtake and the accident were.. 10 miles apart? What relevance then did they have to the accidnet?

Someone asked this elsewhere - apparantly there are two Piddlingtons in the area.

As stated, it takes a lot for a jury to convict on CDbDD, as the prosecution has to prove that overall driving was well below the level expected. A single bad decision on when to overtake would not be enough, but that's the sexy bit for the news (their term, not mine) and hence the bit they concentrate on. So I'm guessing the jury heard of a load of other stupid stuff he was doing in the run-up to the crash.

M

Shimmyhill · 16 May 2007 at 17:47

[TW]Fox said:
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'?

Scapegoat ? Are you retarded ?

Someone died here, lets not try and make this a speed doesnt kill thread. Overtaking cars over a junction is a lunatic move. I have no real issue with overtaking on A roads as i do it most days but never over a junction as its far too dangerous and risky. Death by Dangerous Driving is a very hard conviction to make and there must be lots of witness evidence as well as scene of the crime stuff. It also points out that the person pulling onto the road was not at fault or in any way part of the blame. The whole incident is due to the actions of the driver, the death was a direct result of the way he was driving.

[TW]Fox · 16 May 2007 at 17:49

Shimmyhill said:
Scapegoat ? Are you retarded ?

Are you? The article is ridiculously vague and does not tell us what actually happened. It doesn't say he crashed whilst overtaking, either, so we don't actually know if the two acts were linked.

If he was overtaking in a stupid place and had a horrific accident as a result of being a boneheaded idiot then he deserves everything he's got but it's very hard to tell what actually happened from that attitude.

Shimmyhill · 16 May 2007 at 17:53

[TW]Fox said:
Are you? The article is ridiculously vague and does not tell us what actually happened. It doesn't say he crashed whilst overtaking, either, so we don't actually know if the two acts were linked.

If he was overtaking in a stupid place and had a horrific accident as a result of being a boneheaded idiot then he deserves everything he's got but it's very hard to tell what actually happened from that attitude.

But you can never say he is the victim (as in scapegoat being somebodywho has done nothing wrong being blamed for it)

Yes the quote is vague but the conviction tells the story on this one. As has been said getting death by dangerous driving is not the norm and not easy.

Jez · 16 May 2007 at 18:09

What made it more shocking to me is the fact that his dad is a copper, and he used to always be on a high horse about illegal stuff.

Obviously it wasnt gonna make any difference in this case what his dad did, but it shows that even a good honest guy can end up banged up. His one and only weak spot was always how aggressively he drove.