There were a number of events that transpired in 2007 that you could say "Helped" fan the flames that were used to forge this blog, the jersey, and the effort that I've been putting forth since. But none of those events were as heartbreaking to me as the event that transpired in August of last year...
I was reading the LAist and came across a grim reminder of that accident. Danny Oates was 14 years old when he was riding his bike to school on August 29th to pick up his schedule for the upcoming semester at Isaac L. Sowers Middle School. Jeff Woods was 20 when he swerved into oncoming traffic with his F-150 and mowed Danny down, killing him. I went back and found the article from the OC Register and reread it probably 20 times tonight, just like I did on August 30th. I remember when this accident happened. I watched every bit of news coverage that followed for a short time, and then lost track of the story as other things came and went. But today I saw that the Grand Jury convicted Jeff woods of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated and felony driving under the influence causing bodily injury.
It turns out that Jeff thought it a good idea to get loose with some Vicodin and Xanax, then get behind the wheel of his truck, and send some text messages to his drug dealer while driving. Well, good thing the justice system is there to punish folks who make terrible decisions such as driving while distracted while high off of prescription drugs. Now, I understand that mistakes happen. I'm sure that there are people who have prescriptions for certain kinds of medication who get behind the wheel and who probably don't have any problems. And even if they did, and got into an accident, the legal system would probably look at it and say, "You know, this is a fairly descent person, they were on their medication and they were driving, honest mistake..."
But this was NOT...NOT and honest mistake. This guy was F$&ked up, and was going to get more F%&ked up, and hit a kid and killed him. There's no way to look at this and say "Oh, you know, it was an honest mistake"! So why they convicted him of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated and felony driving under the influence causing bodily injury and not at least 2nd Degree Murder is just beyond me.
I don't know. If it were me I'd lock this dude up and forget where I put the key.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Get High, Drive, Text, Kill...Get off easy.
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1 comment:
He must have had a Johnny Cochran on his side. Driving while intoxicated should never be "ok" in the event someone is killed or hurt. But to take the life of a child because you were just itching for more painkillers is pretty f*($ed up! I saw so many of these dumbasses growing up and sadly knew too many of them. Granted, I was 14, 15! Grow the *%#$ up people! What happens to people that don't understand that being wasted AND texting (illegal last I checked) is going to end badly? Clearly not enough.
It should have been 2nd degree manslaughter, without a doubt but as you know and have heard my cries, our justice system is less than just these days ...
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