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According to the law, it is the driver's responsibility to drive in a manner in which they can stop or avoid such obstacles. Their "prank" was irresponsible and did pose some risk of danger to drivers, but they had no way of knowing that a driver would be driving so recklessly that they would swerve off the road and roll their car to avoid the painted decoy deer. Their actions did contribute to the accident, and they bear some responsibility. However, the majority of the responsibility for what happened lies with the driver. The vast majority of outrage about this incident isn't because of the prank that they performed, but because of the severity of the accident, and if the driver was operating the vehicle safely there would not have been an accident. At worst the driver would have done some relatively minor damage to his vehicles when striking the decoy. They are getting 60 days locked up and 500 to 1500 hours of community service. That's not exactly a slap on the wrist. The kids need to take responsibility for what they did, but they don't deserve to have the responsibility for mistakes of the driver layered on top of them that were not reasonably foreseeable. Deer and other animals jumping out in front of a car on a rural road is not exactly rare. In this case the fake deer was even stationary. The foolish "pranksters" should not have done this, and may should have possibly foreseen that they were putting drivers at some risk of damaging their cars, but I can't see how an accident of this magnitude would result if the driver were driving safely and was in control of the vehicle. The driver is paying a heavy price for his part in the accident. The passenger is paying an even higher price. It's a very sad situation. As for delaying the sentence. Team sports can have a positive influence on many people, and while they are busy with practice and games, they aren't out getting into trouble. A football scholarship may also be these kid's only real hope of going to college. There's no point in ruining their futures. I feel sorry for the parents of those who were injured. I'm sure they have been through a terrible ordeal, but the Judge's duty is to make sure that the sentencing is just, not to satisfy the anger of the driver's parents especially when a portion of that anger appears to be misplaced.

What a complete load of apologistic nonsense. If one puts a object as large as a deer in the road it is entirely reasonable to expect that a car doing the speed limit is going to swerve. Even if they were speeding, the primary cause of this accident was the placement of the large object into the road. Any reasonable person would also understand that placing a large object in the road could very well lead to a serious or even deadly accident. To make convoluted excuses that shift most of the blame to the victim is ludicrous.

I'm not saying their actions were reasonable or acceptable. They were neither.

What they did was wrong, and they deserve to be punished.

They are responsible for their actions, and they should be held accountable for them.

The driver is also accountable for his actions.

You are required to be able to maintain control over your car and stop it something is obstructing the road. That's the law.

I agree with you that they should have realized that their actions might very well lead to someone who was driving less carefully than they should have might collide with the decoy and damage their car.

However, they couldn't know that the driver was going to swerve off the road at a high rate of speed and roll the car.

The driver's responsibility to drive at a safe speed and maintain control of the vehicle even in the event of something being on the road.

To make convoluted excuses that shift most of the blame to the victim is ludicrous.

I'm not using convoluted logic or trying to shift blame from one person to another. I'm suggesting that each person be accountable for their own actions. Nothing more and nothing less.

The accident wouldn't have happened if the idiot kids didn't put the decoy on the road.

However, if the driver was driving safely and maintained control of their vehicle, the accident also would not have happened.

The actions of the kids that put the decoy on the road are definitely more unusual, for the lack of a better word, and arguably they bear the majority of the responsibility for causing the incident. However, the difference between an incident resulting in minor or no damage, and what happened is the driver not being able to stop or even slow down in time.

Both the kids placing the decoy on the road and the driver who was not driving the car performed actions that were not within the law.

The driver is suffering enough for his mistake. I don't see any need to add to that. However, it's also not fair to hold the kids fully responsible for the severity of the accident in an emotional response to the injuries that were sustained by the driver and his passenger.

They deserve their share of the blame, and deserve to be punished accordingly, but that's it.