Girl, Dad Charged in Fatal Crash; Out-of-Control Car Killed Young Mom

Philedelphia Daily News ^ | 05/26/05 | David Gambacorta

[pa mom]

I don't have it but if I'm feeling ambitious I'll get it later. Baseball game tonight so I have to run.

My Dad's from TN and I know he was driving on their property at 14 or so. Another poster cited similar OK law earlier in the thread. Guessing you'll find it in more rural states. Definately not okay here. This was in a very congested part of Philadelphia, not a wide open suburban school.

[Ecthelion]

Please.

An accident is something over which you have no control. i.e., lightning. heart attack. log falling off a log truck just as you go by it.

While you do not control the actions of other drivers, you do control your own actions. Failure to act to avoid a collision could be construed as allowing a collision to occur. Allowing it to occur is nearly as bad as making it occur. Thus, in that sense, most vehicular deaths/injuries are due to negligence in some form or another, by usually more than one party.

[Deaf Smith]

"or scenarios brought"

We have an infamous incident two years ago and his mom is crying to the state legislature about it.

Eighteen year old kid driving in afternoor rush hour traffic. A person alleged to be on a cell phone moves into his lane in front of him. He panicks and swerves hard to the left, jumping the medium, crashing head-on into other vehicles killing himself and severely injuring others.

He never made contact the the vehicle he was to be avoiding. He was not rational and killed himself. His momma is crying to ban driving with cell phones. State Law (Texas) says that he was at fault since there was no contact with the other vehicle in his direction of travel.

[BabsC]

I got a learners permit at 14, a restricted license (no driving after dusk) at 15 and when I turned 16 I could drive at night. Of course this was back in the '70s and I had an older "boyfriend" who taught me to drive everything from a column mounted straight drive truck to a '68 mustang with a thrush muffler that fell off on speed bumps.

My dad out of boredom taught me to drive when I was 12. We used the motor pool parking lot on the Army base. His mother never drove a car and was dependent on others. He swore no woman in his family would be dependent on others to get from point A to point B. Of course I also had to be able to change a flat by myself before I could use the family car.

[Darnright]

Bump for later

[pa mom]

I learned to drive (better) from a boyfriend, too. To this day am not a fearful "girl" behind the wheel. Great thing to know. Never know when a lady will need to deck her date for being fresh and drive home herself!

[vigilo]

Anytime anything bad happens, it has to be a crime. There are no accidents. Someone is ALWAYS responsible in some way. This is the new orthodoxy.

What a horrible thing to happen to all involved. Sometimes I get the feeling that we're all just one horrible accident away from 10 to 20 in the slammer.

[GVnana]

Where does a kid learn to drive these days?

I was taught to drive by my father, but since he was a lawyer, I drove only on our private property until I had a permit.

So there's the permit issue -- she should have had one. Yes, accidents do happen. I try to think back to my own experiences and teaching my children. Could we have gone completely out-of-control like this?

Sounds like Dad wasn't being prudent and expected a little too much, too soon. The first thing you learn is how to STOP the car.