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Court Rules Parents Are Responsible for Unlicensed Teen Driver’s Fatal Crash
The Drive ^ | July 24 2024 | Nico DeMattia

Posted on 07/25/2024 4:31:19 PM PDT by texas booster

A Queens Criminal Court sentenced the parents of a teenage driver Monday for crimes their then-16-year-old allegedly committed back in May of 2023. This prosecution is believed to be the first of its kind—at least in New York—in which the parents are held responsible for the actions of their children.

On May 17, the now-17-year-old was allegedly driving at 101 mph in a 2005 BMW 3 Series on North Conduit Avenue in Queens when he lost control and crashed into a parked UPS truck. The teenage driver still had a junior license, which means he was supposed to be driving with a 21-year-old adult, or older, in the passenger seat. However, instead of an adult, 14-year-old Fortune Williams was in the car with him. Tragically, Williams didn’t survive the crash.

According to NBC4 New York, the teenage driver—whose name has been withheld due to his age—is being charged with several crimes, including manslaughter.

Since the driver is still a teenager that required the supervision of an adult, his parents—Sean Smith, 40, and Deo Ramnarine, 43—pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child. Smith is the one who bought the teen driver the BMW, and both parents were allegedly aware their son was driving the car illegally but did not stop him.

A school administrator notified the parents that their son was driving to school, and he was reportedly given a ticket in 2022 for driving without a license.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: nyc; parentalrights; queens; teendriver
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

“Shades of Nicki Catsouris.”

I saw the photos, what a mess.


21 posted on 07/25/2024 5:16:09 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest )
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To: texas booster

I drive the north Conduit there, it’s a main east west truck route. The road is WILDLY uneven and dippy and bumpy as only massive semis can make a road. To hit a hundred on it you’re gonna die period. There is no stretch of that road that can take it. Buying an ignorant 17 year old a Beemer isn’t going to help.


22 posted on 07/25/2024 5:20:00 PM PDT by TalBlack (I We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: texas booster

23 posted on 07/25/2024 5:21:48 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: texas booster

You’re in good hands with— whatever.


24 posted on 07/25/2024 5:26:19 PM PDT by Mark (DONATE ONCE every 3 months-is that a big deal?)
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To: BenLurkin

Is that the girl who was killed?


25 posted on 07/25/2024 5:26:47 PM PDT by Indy Pendance (Jesus can't get here soon enough!)
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To: texas booster

Crazy to let teens drive. Driving age should be 21. This kid-killer should be locked up for life but he’ll pay a fine and that will be it. Same with the fossils.


26 posted on 07/25/2024 5:27:01 PM PDT by Diversity Is Our Weakness
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To: Indy Pendance

I believe so.


27 posted on 07/25/2024 5:29:49 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: napscoordinator
I’m glad the parents were charged. They were notified previously that their brat was driving to school. Somebody needs to answer for a young girls death.

I'm not glad. The lines of responsibility of parents is getting blurred in these liberal times. Parents are not allowed to have say over their school-age kids doing gender changes. Kids are taken away from parents who prefer to home-school. Teachers and government employees have more say over brainwashing kids.

The brat should certainly be punished. But maybe so should teachers who instill bad values in kids. The parents can be sued for monetary damages. But charging the parents for the death of the girl in their son's car is reaching too far.

28 posted on 07/25/2024 5:37:01 PM PDT by roadcat ( )
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To: texas booster

We bought our son a 1993 F150 4x4 for graduation with the stipulation that he gets it when he paid me the cost of the insurance. He had a good paying job but chose not to pay me. So he never got the truck and moved out shortly afterwards. I still have it today and haven’t seen his dumb ass since 2017.


29 posted on 07/25/2024 5:47:45 PM PDT by shotgun
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To: texas booster

Why isn’t the car-maker being sued for selling a cap capable of 101 mph? Gun makers get sued all the time.


30 posted on 07/25/2024 6:03:13 PM PDT by Diversity Is Our Weakness
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To: BenLurkin; Indy Pendance

14 year olds usually don’t wear cap and gowns.


31 posted on 07/25/2024 6:04:55 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (2 coups in less than 4 years. America is truly a first world Banana Republic.)
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To: texas booster

Had something similar happen here when a carload of yutes doing 98 in a 45 on a narrow hilly road got into a head-on collision with a Sheriff’s deputy.

3 of the 4 yutes and the deputy were killed.


32 posted on 07/25/2024 6:06:40 PM PDT by 2CAVTrooper (Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Middle school graduation, grade school graduation, kindergarten graduation. Cap and gowns, around here anyway.


33 posted on 07/25/2024 6:08:45 PM PDT by Indy Pendance (Jesus can't get here soon enough!)
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To: texas booster

In my area, at 17 they are driving on their own.


34 posted on 07/25/2024 6:24:09 PM PDT by roving (Deplorable Erectionists Listless Vessel )
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To: Indy Pendance
Middle school graduation, grade school graduation, kindergarten graduation.

Silly. High school is the graduation that counts. When I graduated from middle school, a tie and sports jacket was what I wore. Nothing for grade school or kindergarten!

35 posted on 07/25/2024 6:24:52 PM PDT by roadcat ( )
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To: roving
I was driving a loaded 5 ton farm truck at 14.

Once, when fully loaded with grain, the clutch springs broke on it and I drove it for over 10 miles shifting with no clutch.

36 posted on 07/25/2024 6:52:02 PM PDT by Mogger (AreIn bookstores is a very expensive, beautifully bound in green leather Holy Koran. If one was goin)
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To: roadcat

HS graduation doesn’t count either, not with all the affirmative action grading today. It’s just a participation trophy for the non-whites.


37 posted on 07/25/2024 6:53:44 PM PDT by Diversity Is Our Weakness
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To: texas booster

The driver lost a Fortune in that case.


38 posted on 07/25/2024 7:02:47 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: texas booster

Excellent news!

The advantage I had, as a pre-teen of 9-10, was that my grandfather allowed me to drive to the store (8 miles from the house) by myself for groceries, etc.., and let me earn my own car at the age of 11...

Of course, in those days, you could get your drivers license at 12...

In those days, personal responsibility was taught to children by parents and, in my case during WWII, grandparents...

It has been a long time since “responsibility” has been taught to American children...

Those parents who attempt to do so, nowadays, are under threat from the government school system indoctrinators...


39 posted on 07/25/2024 7:20:09 PM PDT by SuperLuminal ( Where is Samuel Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Wow. I had never heard about that story.


40 posted on 07/25/2024 11:34:01 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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