Ferrari Driver with 28 tickets kills 3

Ever notice that you never see a headline reading:
"Driver of high performance car avoids accident!"

The sad part is that a bloated, unmaneuverable SUV plowing blindly into traffic isn't headline news anymore, either.
"Honda Civic smashes into three other cars", only appears in the traffic report.
But when a "politically incorrect" vehicle is involved, the blame is obvious, right?

When legislation is based only on headlines, ... be afraid, be very afraid.

 

Great thread to make my first post.

This is by far the saddest road accident article I've ever read. They REALLY need to fix there road laws up there. I live in Fairfax County here in NOVA and you're pretty much screwed with 1 reckless ticket. I think the judge would shoot you himself here in Fairfax if a driver had that kinda record. My condolences(sp) to the victim's family.

Now we don't know if the ferrari driver was at fault or not...but IF even by the slightest chance it was his fault..I hope Bubba in federal prison visits this fool's cell everynight. Now for the lawyer or lawyers who gave the Ferrari owner 42 *get out of jail pass'*, 28 of them being speeding tickets.....I'll just leave it at that. It's just mind boggling.

 

Sounds like Ferrari's miserable safety failed again...

Split in two? Did he hit a solid unmoveable object as a secondary impact?

Or is this just what happens when a hand-made car with an unboltable rear end has an accident?

I certainly hope Ferrari's current range of the Enzo / F430 / 612 or even the 360 and 575M are vastly better.

I have seen many other examples of the cars splitting in two.

In this day and age, you should really expect a car like a Ferrari (especially considering the price) to be alot better in this regard. I suppose the downside would be increased weight and this is why they're hesitent... guess it depends on your priorities.

Although, I believe today's Ferraris are vastly stronger and better built than those of 10+ years ago, yes?

What safety standards do Ferraris have to meet? Just Italian? I take it there are no national safety standard every car has to adhere to when they're imported?

 

Congratulations on making your first post, I hope that you are now comfortable enough with the site to fill out your Forum Info.....

I’m sure the law will change, although there is no facts in the article that showed Lane, the Ferrari driver in the three car crash, was to blame. The news story drifts from a pile up that killed three people (one of whom as Lane) into a history about his speeding tickets. No one else’s driving records are mentioned, and the sole survivor opinion as to fault isn’t sought. In light of these small omissions the solution to the whole mess in obvious: Legislate! Change the law!

You know, I’ve always found that people who break the law don’t alter their behavior much much when the rules are changed. The old laws didn’t apply, why should the new? If the Late Mr. Lane was the cause of the accident, and had he survived unscathed, then outside of jail he would probably continue to speed, driving license or no.

 

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-threedead12.html
This article, though shorter, has actual details of crash.

 

This was undoubtedly a terrible event, and the loss of life makes it all the worse. I am very sorry for the families of all the dead. However, let's be very careful about "changing" the laws. Frankly, I don't believe that speed, by itself, is a bad thing. It does heighten the risk factor, but the reality is that a bad driver at 100mph is a bad driver at 50mph. And, by this same logic (i.e. that slower is safer), we could end up with in a situation where some do-gooder legislator declares that we should reduce the speed limits to 10mph to make the roads safer and reduce the loss of innocent life.

We, as humans, were given the gift of thought, so we need to use it. Unfortunately, I steadily see instances where the Authorities are taking decisions away from us. Why is it that one tragic event results in the total outrage by society and drags everyone down? Not to minimize these people's deaths, but far more people die everyday from disease, war and other "avoidable" events, but you don't hear much about "changing the laws" in those instances.

Driving fast can be dangerous in the wrong conditions. Driving fast can also be totally safe. It just depends. Our one-size-fits-all approach disregards this fact. It's dependent on the driver's skills, the road conditions, the vehicle, the weather, the time-of-day and so on. The first thing we are taught in driver's education is that it is the driver him or herself that is best able to understand the circumstances. I would rather rely on my own ability to figure these out than some traffic engineer sitting in an office or a Legislator at the Capitol. They don't know me or my driving abilities. They don't know the conditions at the time. They don't know anything other than they have to reduce fatalities. And, a word about statistics: there are far more vehicles on the roads today than there were even 5 years ago. There will be more fatalities as a result. That's the law of probability.

Many will say, "yes, but this driver had such a bad record. He should have been stopped before this happened." I would like to know what exactly he was cited for. Now, I suspect that we will find he committed some egregious offenses, but it just may be possible that he was ticketed for 65mph in a 55mph 28 different times. Yes, this stretches it a bit, but the point is that all citations are not the same, and I reiterate my point that I don't consider driving fast, in an of itself, unreasonable if the conditions were permitting. Maybe this was just a truly unlucky event.

So, who's to blame? If there must be a bad guy, it's the driver. Judges are just a cog in the wheel (and not particularly brilliant cogs, either). People, themselves, must take responsibility for their actions. In this case, the driver's dead. He's paid the price. So are two innocents, unfortunately. As one of the posts indicated, in some jurisdictions, this driver would likely have lost his driving privileges long ago. And, maybe a national standard would be helpful. Maybe. But, mandatory sentencing has it's own problems (just ask the Judges who must sentence, and the defendants who get, seemingly outrageous sentences for petty offenses).

All I am suggesting, here, is that rather than get caught up in the emotion of the moment, we act calmly and rationally. Any proposals should be thought through, and we should resist the urge to have a knee-jerk reaction and look through to the real problems instead of the easy, low-hanging quick-fix. How about proper driver education and training? How about understanding and respecting one's limits? How about meaningful law enforcement, as opposed to revenue collection that leaves us feeling resentful? How about getting insurance companies to look a little deeper than the mere ticket count? How about a DMV that works in conjunction with the courts instead of independently? There are many things that could improve before focusing on this one, sad event.

CW

 

Unbelievable. And unbelievably sad.

 

We've been posting on this for a few days in the Chicago section:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78646

FYI

 

If you read the second page of the paper, it states he admitted to going 31 and 39 miles/hr over the speed limit and is awaiting his punishment. It's too bad for both familes and who wouldn't be upset over this. Everyone (nearly) goes over the speed limit but it looks like a regular thing for the F car driver. I think speeding on the interstate is one thing but in city traffic it's much more dangerous for everyone.
When I was in Italy and France a couple of weeks ago it appeared that there was no speed limit. They fly but there are driving rules they all follow. They know what to expect from the other driver and they all follow the rules. Speed limits are exceded regularly by 70klms/hr. Then you have the really fast guys. I was amazed at the lack of accidents.

 

As far as I know,the Ferrari driver went through a stop sign at a high rate of speed.
His legal problems were allegedly taken care of by family lawyer before.(27 year old ,living with parents)

 

At least his ramage is over, and really he killed two, he does not count in my book. The Ferrari driver would have cost the state a lot of money to warehouse after an expensive trial, given the people had already died, it would appear this was the cheapest/easiest outcome for the state and the relatives. I know I'd be happier if the killer of my 4 year old was dead than to have to live through a trial that he could potentially get off.

 

Better road discipline,better trained drivers,cars generally in much better condition then in US.
In short,Europe has a majority of really good drivers and the US has 99% of drivers who are barely qualified to push carts!

 

Why is everyone assuming it's his fault?

There's nothing in the articles to show that. Maybe the blessed mother ran the stoplight going the other way?

After all, the car behind the Ferrari was also involved, so either (1) the Fcar wasn't moving all that fast, (2) that car was moving quickly too, or (3) it's a really nasty blind intersection (which should divert some attention towards the local construction manager)

EDIT: yup, David below is right, it was the Toyota -- I got the names mixed up.

It's still worth noting that there has yet to be any blame assigned in the wreck

 

No - the car behind the Toyota was also involved (hit when the Ferrari slammed into the Toyota at high speed, then ricocceted into the other vehicle).

 

There is absolutely no information in either article to really allow any reader to accurately speculate on 'fault' or 'blame'.
The writers in both articles do use a form of 'implied blame' via the 'high-powered Ferrari' + 'many citations' to lead the superficial reader to assume a level of guilt on the Ferrari drivers part.
What is truly disturbing here--other than the tragic deaths of 3 people--is that ANY driver of ANY car is out there toodling along after so many citations.
Keith

 

You really need to read more. Every car "sold" in the USA, regardless of where it was made, has had to pass Federal safety standards in effect on the date of manufacture, since 1968. Its right there on the door sill, in black and white.

 

Taken from Chicago Times second page:
"But, Birkett conceded that the court and his personnel are not always privy to the complete driving record of the 245,000 cases that pass through DuPage County each year. That's despite the fact that the secretary of state implemented a court supervision database in 1999, which was supposed to compile all of the driving records from individual courthouses, so that law enforcement, attorneys and judges could review drivers' case histories.

Birkett said because of the volume of cases--prosecutors can handle as many as 250 traffic cases a day--his prosecutors don't always have the time to look through the records. They often instead rely on the clerk's record in the courtroom."

Does anyone else find this disturbing in the least? Surprising, no I can't say I am. But to say they don't have the time is ridiculous. The guy has 42 citations, thus been in court how many times and you just keep passing it on as no big deal! I'm outraged that this guy was still on the streets driving around putting everyone in danger.

This just proves we will give anyone and everyone a driving license, and let them keep it under any circumstance. We need sticter laws for being able to obtain a licence. I see idiots on the road every single day. Have I not made mistakes on the road? Yes. We all have and we learn from them, at least good drivers do. That's what makes good drivers better and keeps the bad ones bad.

This country seems to have a policy of waiting until the tragic happens to strip people of their rights and belongings. A licence is a privledge, not a mandatory right. Unfortunately they fail to teach that in Drivers Ed.

 

Back when I was in my 'teens. I was always getting tickets. Usually for driving a loud red sports car and having long hair.
The above facts got me convicted for speeding in a car that "Sounded like it was going fast" even though the officer saw nothing.

The fact that he has a lot of tickets, means nothing, unless you know the circumstances.

 

I am really surprised anyone not paid to is defending this killer. One of his citations was for running and evading the cops, some of his others were for 30+ mph over the speed limit. A total of 42 citations over eight years, and that is just DuPage County alone. The guy was a menace to society who should have had his license revoked or put in jail years ago. The sad part is that a little boy and his mother paid with their lives because of the failure of the prosecutor, district attorney and the court system.

 

I have a feeling the DA's office will be under some scrutiny after this one.

 

As someone who in there youth got about 1 ticket a year, I would want to find out more details. But based on those statistics, your absolutely correct. This "A" Hole should never ever had the keys to a car. Too many times you hear about someone calling some innocent victims and surviving, thank god that is not the case here.

 

The outcry prior to the OJ case coing to court, was that he did it. But, the trial proved otherwise. Public opinion did not match the "Facts"

If his driving record was as bad as they say, his liscence should have been already revoked AUTOMATICALLY.
Without the facts infront of you, all this is just an assumption. It may very well be that the Ferrari driver was at fault, but from the referenced sources, I can not see the point that proves it.
It may also be that the temporary traffic light was put up in a blind curve. The victims may just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

BTW, in NJ, 30mph over the speed limit is just keeping up with traffic.
Most of these arbitrary speed limit laws are nothing more than a tax on commuters.

 

Heck, they're trying to kill you just for having a car. Seen the Telegraph Road interchange at 495? Three blind merges in a row?!! That's beyond criminal negligence, and into the realm of "malice aforethought".

"high-powered"? See the slant yet?

Wait. Back up. "temporary stoplight" -- on "an unlit curve" -- in a 45 zone?

This is what we're seeing in Fairfax/Alexandria: If we can convict the fancy car in the press before the facts are in, we don't have to bother to have safe, or even sane, roads. We wouldn't want to divert all that tax money into something for the public, after all.

Never mind the extrapolated, inferred, and implied nature of the few snippets of his past driving record; I don't care if this jerk was Attila the Road Warrior every other day this year -- To "convict" this person without data (aka "due process") about the event in question is blatant smoke and mirrors. And it worked. Not one article even asked about the "attractive nuisance" created by a government highway fiscal rathole.

Policies of excess enforcement assign blame to citizens for living where local government corruption is the only policy. It's become endemic in our cities. Standing out in a crowd makes you a target to distract from what should be obvious -- our highways are being "dressed to kill".

Those who want to avoid becoming "downtrodden masses" have to learn to listen for the footsteps.

 

I wasn't referring to the fact just for tickets. But due to circumstance as you said is what should be looked at. Should have made my point clearer. But having 42 citations would be more than just being profiled, especially in today's society. I get profiled all the time. The cops ride my ass until they're able to run my plates and then turn around or exit because they have nothing to go on.