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Father of Driver In Violent Tesla Crash Blames Sedan's 'Rocket-Ship' Acceleration (autoweek.com)
"A Tesla crash that resulted in the deaths of the driver and a passenger in Indianapolis last November is drawing new controversy after the father of one of the victims made comments regarding the role of the Model S in the incident," Autoweek reports. "The crash occurred in downtown Indianapolis on Nov. 3, 2016, with the Model S driven by 27-year-old Casey Speckman striking a tree and catching fire. Speckman was pronounced dead at the scene while her passenger, 44-year-old Kevin McCarthy, succumbed to his injuries after being taken to the hospital." From the report: A report released last week by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department disclosed that Speckman had a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, almost three times the legal limit in the state of Indiana, The Indianapolis Star reports. Another new detail has emerged since the violent crash was first reported: The Tesla could have been been trying to maneuver around a vehicle traveling on the wrong side of the street, suggested by closed-circuit footage obtained by the attorney of the driver's father, Jon Speckman. The coroner's report cited blunt-force injuries caused by the crash as the causes of death for both victims, noting the vehicle's fire as a contributing factor, according to The Indianapolis Star. Jon Speckman recently made comments to the newspaper blaming the acceleration of the Tesla Model S. "Had she been in another vehicle, she would have been alive for me to yell at her for driving after drinking," Speckman told The Indianapolis Star in an interview at his attorney's office. "This is a vehicle that travels from 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds," Speckman also said during the interview. "She's clearly having to swerve to miss a vehicle going the wrong way on a one-way street. If her foot should happen to hit the accelerator, it's like a rocket ship. I don't know why they have to make a car that does that."
I don't think the Tesla forced her to drive.
If you dont want a car that accelerates quickly dont buy a car that accelerates quickly.
Alternative headline: father explains parenting strategy for raising irresponsible children.
"The key is to blame others," he said.
"Had she been in another vehicle, she would have been alive for me to yell at her for driving after drinking"
LMFTFY
"Had she been drinking under the legal limit, she would have been alive AND still had her vehicle"
Count your blessings your daughter only murdered one passenger, and not more innocent bystanders.
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Yup, the cause was a drunk driver not how fast the car accelerated. Could of done the same thing in any car.
"This is a vehicle that travels from 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds," Speckman also said during the interview. "She's clearly having to swerve to miss a vehicle going the wrong way on a one-way street. If her foot should happen to hit the accelerator, it's like a rocket ship. I don't know why they have to make a car that does that."
Because some people WANT a car that does that. There's no reason you had to buy it though. Entirely your fault. Blame yourself. Every single day of the rest of your life blame yourself.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Seriously.
I get Mr. Speckman is overwhelmed at the loss of his daughter, but maybe somebody could have told him to STFU while he was working through his grief.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Thats the implication
Driving at three times the limit, rocket ship acceleration or not, is not exactly safe.
I haven't clocked a SpaceX Falcon9 or similar, but I can't imagine the 0-60 being all that fast.
A better comparison would be a motorcycle.
I get the guy is grieving because he lost his kids, but that is some of the dumbest things I've ever heard. For the price of that tesla, he could be driving a porsche, or any other sports, or luxury car which would have a similar speed. It might not be 0-60 in 3.1, but when your drunk it doesn't really matter if its 3.1 or even 5 seconds because at .21 BAC the driver was wasted. I can't say that I haven't done the same thing when I was in that state, but it really is like playing russian roulette.
Damn roads were also paved, making it possible for the speeds over 10 MPH. The city should of put in more speed bumps to prevent this from happening. DUI is DUI, people still kill themselves with "slow" cars.
A drunk woman knowingly put her car into insane or ludicrous mode, while drunk. She forced at least one person to swerve to miss her, while maybe avoiding an accident down a one way street. But in avoiding the accident, she drunkenly crashed into a tree or object at such speed that it caused her battery compartment to be punctured and ignite. Did I miss anything?
The only sad thing is daddy's little Darwin Award girl took someone else out with her, together with a lovely machine.
"She's clearly having to swerve to miss a vehicle going the wrong way on a one-way street.
She's clearly drunk and driving out of control when she's hitting the tree and scattering the car over a 150 yard long debris field. It remains to be seen if there was another car on the street at the time.
They're over the limit?
Sorry, whatever the ultimate cause of the accident, they were unfit to drive, thus pontificating over what they "would have" done in another is absolutely pointless. This driver got into a car and drove off when there was even a RISK of being near or over the limit and never questioned it.
They are, therefore, a BAD DRIVER. The cause of their death - whether that's a guy on the wrong side of the road, unintended acceleration, a fire, etc. is incidental to their decision to drive. That's why we make brakes and steering wheels and train people to pass a test to ensure they're fit to drive, so you can avoid obstacles, stop the car, press the right pedal and not lose control if you're being a driver of even satisfactory driving skill.
Yeah, it's sad. Yeah that kind of acceleration is unnecessary. Yeah, maybe there was a guy on your side of the road - it happens, there are idiots everywhere and people use the other side for overtaking, manoeuvres, etc. all the time. But the driver drove a car without knowing its capabilities, or feeling discomfort at it themselves enough to NOT drive it, or without taking "due care" (a phrase that will come up a lot) to ensure they didn't accelerate unintentionally no matter the situation. And they chose to do so while their judgement was impaired beyond legal limits.
Contributing factors are the least of your problems, compared to telling your OTHER sons and daughters, and their friends and family to NEVER DRIVE DRUNK if they don't want to kill themselves and others.
That you have to state that to an adult is really a sad state of affairs.
If it had been on a Harley (there are electric Harley's now too!), and they'd done the same, would you be calling for motorbikes to be outlawed where you weren't saying that before? The device is not the problem - someone pressing the throttle when they mean the brake is never going to end well, even for a fraction of a second. The problem is that you have allowed yourself to bring up your children to think that drink-driving is fine and acceptable, even if you know it's illegal, and then blame others when your KILLER of a child takes someone else out too by driving drunk.
Fuck, I don't even let work colleagues do that. I have literally removed people's keys and they've started fights with me over doing so. If your own child did it, fix that problem before you look at ANYTHING else.
...as much as I'd like to strongly disagree with him, I'm simply not going to go after something a parent says after losing a child. No matter how dumb or self-destructive the child was, etc.
That person is grasping at whatever straws they can to maintain their sanity. They're out of bounds.
Now, I would take to task the editor(s) of the Indianapolis Star for printing that shit. At a certain point, morally, one would have to say "You know, maybe that doesn't need to be in our article."
-Styopa
Blame the guy that planted the tree! It is indisputable that had he not put that tree there she would be alive! And beer! Beer companies have a lot of money too! Sue beer company for killing her! Idiot.
... then why did you let her drive such a beast in the first place?
It's really easy to shift blame away from your loved ones, and onto a faceless corporation while throwing your arms up in the air and shouting:
"Please, won't someone think of the children!"
The fact of the matter is: his daughter chose to drive drunk, and she crashed the [fast] car. Not only did she endanger herself, but her passenger as well.
The bottom line is: his daughter would still be alive had she driven sober [and this is a true fact if the car she was driving is fast or slow]
"Had she been in another vehicle, she would have been alive for me to yell at her for driving after drinking,"
This happened last November, and he's at the 3rd stage of grief. He's going to get depressed when people point out he's being an idiot in public.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
I take it he's campaigning for the reinstatement of the red flag law. Seriously how fast does he think cars should be allowed to travel of accelerate? If all were limited to 20mph then almost all accidents would be survivable (though daresay you'd get some drunk idiots driving into rivers or off cliffs even at that speed).
"...A report released last week by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department disclosed that Speckman had a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, almost three times the legal limit "
As a parent, I cannot imagine the grief this father is dealing with right now, but I certainly I hope this lapse of common sense in a desperate attempt to blame the car is temporary, given this report released by Captain Obvious.
Unfortunately, the cars performance is not the main factor that caused a loss of life. One must not only be sober, but capable of handling a car that can deliver Fast and Furious performance. While I don't agree with this stupid and pointless race to ludicrous speed in the EV market right now, if you can't handle a car, then don't drive the fucking thing, no matter what technology is powering it.
I agree with everyone that the car is not to blame but maybe Tesla should think about allowing owners to limit acceleration when desired. I could see that being beneficial for new drivers, people new to driving performance cars, people you lend the car to, valets, etc. I think they have a valet mode already that does this?
No one made her drink that much, no one made her get in the car and mash down on the accelerator. In fact no one made her buy a car like that. Perhaps he should have yelled at her before she got into the habit of drinking so much. Either way it is not Tesla's fault, but her own fault.
A report released last week by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department disclosed that Speckman had a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, almost three times the legal limit in the state of Indiana
And it is the car at fault? Yeah I'm not buying it either. Methinks the drinking had a lot more do do with this crash than any other factor. I understand it is hard for some parents to believe that their precious snowflake might have made a bad choice and earned a Darwin Award.
This guy blames unicycles for his broken arm.
"This thing has only one wheel. It's impossible to balance. Why do they even sell things like this?"
Driving a different vehicle : translate: I bought her the car so it is my fault for this. If only I had bought her the Lambo.
Not only did the guy buy the Tesla knowing full well what its capabilities were, he let his kiddo borrow it. To be honest, it could have been any car. Lots of people die every damn day from alcohol related crashes. The fact that this one involved a Tesla is now merely a statistic somewhere.
Why is it that no one these days bothers to take responsibility for their actions. It's always the fault of someone or something else.
It can't be his daughters fault that she was drunk, it's the folks who sold it to her !
Or the folks who manufactured it. . . .
Or the folks who shipped it. . . .
Etc. Etc.
It's a tragic loss. It always is.
However the facts are simple: His daughter CHOSE to drive while drunk.
( Welcome to being one of ~90k people killed every year from it )
THAT'S what killed her.
Not the car.
I knew that reading comprehension was reaching lows on slashdot, but you didn`t have to read the article to know that he had a girl who was drunk driving. No idea if he has a son that does the same thing though. Good news? She's eligible for a DA!
Many people drive performance vehicles that accelerate as fast, or almost as fast every day without plowing into trees. You know why? They don't do it sloshed.
When you are sober, you actually have the fine motor control and reaction time necessary to capably control a machine like that. When you're a drunk fucking retard, you are far more likely to mash the accelerator, oversteer, and react to situations late, losing control. It might be why there are laws against driving while intoxicated.
Have your fucking lawyer look into that one.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
BeauHD always posted negative news for Tesla... Hint Hint
It is of course totally evil how Tesla forces wealthy 27-year-olds to buy massively overpowered cars for $100000, then forces them to get completely drunk, and then forces them to get behind the wheel and endanger other drivers! The humanity! There ought to be a law to protect the people from such evil corporations! /sarc
...as much as I'd like to strongly disagree with him, I'm simply not going to go after something a parent says after losing a child. No matter how dumb or self-destructive the child was, etc.
Fair enough. I will do it. His daughter was driving drunk and by doing so endangered the lives and property of others. It's tragic that anyone lost their life but the reality is that his daughter was apparently 100% at fault here. Tesla did not cause her to crash or to operate a vehicle in an irresponsible fashion. I don't care how distraught he is, that doesn't give him a free pass to put the blame where it doesn't belong. He's lashing out and hurting still more people who had nothing to do with his daughter's foolish behavior and I'm not fine with that.
That person is grasping at whatever straws they can to maintain their sanity. They're out of bounds.
His sanity is of no concern to me when he starts trying to hurt other people to sooth his grief.
Now, I would take to task the editor(s) of the Indianapolis Star for printing that shit. At a certain point, morally, one would have to say "You know, maybe that doesn't need to be in our article."
If he said it then it's not the newspaper's fault for reporting that. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
The way the courts work, if there are N causes for an accident, all N causes are liable for full 100% of the damages. This is a necessary consequence of allowing limited liability corporations. If we assign liability proportionally, immediately all corporations will spawn child corporations that will all act as one way valve. Profits flow upstream and liability stops with them. So they will not have the assets to pay for the damages they cause. It is already happening to some extent, in taxes, income stream management, and a few other areas.
But the way the system is gamed, no one seems to benefit, other than the trial lawyers.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I empathize with the father. Grief gives most people irrational thinking that only clears with time and acceptance. Bargaining is part of that thinking. "If only Tesla hadn't made the vehicle so damn fast..."
Because people can't handle freedom and responsibility.
Why did you buy a car that does that?????
Some unit would be nice. Here in Europe we use per mille for this, which is a tenth of a percent. 0.21 would be nothing then.
Some googling show me that the legal limit in Indiana is 0.8 percent, so I guess she had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent or 2.1 per mille.
No worries! Not like the daughter endangered anyone else one the road while driving drunk.
Yes, all she would have deserved is a good yelling.
The Tesla Model S is one of the safest cars on the road.
However, it has the performance of a Ferrari. People are aware of this since it is one the key selling points.
Maybe the car could have a spare key for limited performance settings, if you are going to loan the car to someone else or to a valet parking attendant.
In any case, drinking and driving is inexcusable.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Even if the car's performance characteristics contributed in this very specific way to this very specific crash his argument amounts to "This car wasn't designed to be driven while drunk."
In her impaired state there's no reason to assume she wouldn't have just been in a different accident had she been in a different car.
When a driver makes a decision, even a bad one, the car is obligated to follow their lead because that's what it means to be "driving".
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world. It's just a lie you've got to rise above. - John Mayer
If only she was driving a big truck
He's likely still very emotional and shouldn't be making statements to the news. No one forced him or his daughter to purchase that vehicle. Having an extremely fast car is very dangerous and increases the potential for accidents and death. It's an unfortunate situation but the only person to blame is the driver of the vehicle for being drunk. Had she not been drunk then all the blame would reside on the other driver going the wrong way. Because she was drunk it completely invalidates all blame from anyone else or preceding events. If he wants to reason how this tragic event could have been avoided it's simple, don't drink and drive. 3 times over the legal limit and he wants to blame someone else, anyone else, other than his daughter. Get real.
SJWs Rule!
I thought ludicrous speed had to be manually enabled in the car after every start or the acceleration wasn't that fast. Another angry parent mad at the car instead of their drunk-driving kid.
The type of stuff that makes me wish we'd pause modern medicine for a year or two and let some plagues clean-up the gene pool a bit.
That's not what was said. I didn't read that the police report said that was what happened. What I read was that the father claimed she probably swerved to avoid a vehicle going the wrong way. I didn't even read that the police report said that acceleration one way or the other was even a factor.
Yeah, and blowing a .21 had nothing to do with it.
His outbursts would be seen and treated as the expression of loss and grief that they are, and not reported in the news or brought before a court of law. But this is America and the car is a Tesla, so here we are.
I've been in a couple situations where acceleration saved me from a crash.
What's sadly ironic here though is Tesla will be one of the first cars with fully autonomous driving.
:T:R:A:N:S:
Don't drive rocket ships when you're drunk.
Sorry, buddy, but your little precious is to blame here. I know that isn't what you want to hear after she eliminated herself from the gene pool by her own stupidity, and if it makes you feel better, blame the world, the powers that are, the car and whatever else you could come up with, but in the end, what we have here is someone who was drunk and lost control over the vehicle. Even whether she had to avoid collision with another car isn't really established as a fact by now. So what's left is that your daughter's drunk driving killed herself and murdered her passenger.
All I can say is that at least she didn't take any innocent bystanders with her. With her passenger you can at least say "well, stupid enough to get into the car of a drunk driver", something you could not claim if she had killed someone by driving over them.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I agree with the above post that the parent should be left in peace; however, given that the ambulance-chasers have seen fit to cast blame on Tesla, it is appropriate to point out that the driver was intoxicated and the design of the vehicle is not at fault. Neither the parent nor the automaker should be made into a villain here.
Or maybe your issue is with English. The acceleration of the rocket as I would have interpreted it isn't the thrust of the rocket engine but 2m/s^2 net acceleration above the 9.8
maybe physics isn't your strong suit. Net acceleration is still within its frame of reference.
Just getting a pulse of what the /. community makes of this reaction.
Blood-alcohol level aside (0.21, despite being illegal, is nothing in most scenarios; in my country the legal limit is 0.5, and I personally don't feel anything at or around that value), but what do you all think can really trigger statements from parents of the deceased in this scenario: Do you believe it's real grief? Do you think he's looking for monetary compensation from Tesla? Do you think his statement is logic-based and he actually believes the acceleration had direct influence on the accident (and he might be seeking for Tesla to implement real safeguards to that problem)? Or do you think this might have a finger or two from the gas-guzzling auto-industry?
This isn't some role-playing game. Being drunk isn't the issue. I don't think most people put being drunk enough to get yourself into a situation where you are catching a ride with a person too drunk to drive thus putting yourself at risk anywhere near as bad a decision as being a person driving while being too drunk to drive and thus putting anyone you encounter while driving at risk.
I feel bad for the father, but blaming the car his daughter was driving at 0.21 BAC is a non-starter. I don't care if it was a Pinto and she was going 80MPH in reverse when she hit the tree causing it to burst into flames.
It's not even clear that she'd be alive in a different car leaving him to "yell at her". Thankfully, the only person she murdered was someone stupid enough to get in the car with her.
If this progresses to a lawsuit against Tesla (which is not a company I have a lot of positive feelings for), it'll be another example of why we can't have anything nice. Stupid people seem intent on making the rest of society pay for their stupidity and we keep letting them, instead of letting them suffer the sometimes fatal consequences on their own.
In Germany the limit is 0.05; she was 4x this level.
Okay, so what's the moral principle involved?
Father Quote: "I don't know why they have to make a car that does that." Please Remove this Article from Slashdot. The Father is making a money grab
But I think Elon, did. Bribery isn't just for politicians anymore. People buy this type of 'evidence' and verdict in Hollywood all the time - this is just a little too convenient, for my taste. Why people and judges in CA have such blinders on when it comes to 'their own' is a mystery (oh wait, no it isn't. They are the most arrogant, greedy, and selfish people in the entire nation), and not very helpful. CA is the only place I have ever lived where a part of a person's introduction is, 'I've never been sued!'. I no longer have an ounce of respect for any valley company, and I vote like a mofo.
The autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating Slashdot troll
He should sue everybody. The companies that lay down the roads, the government for hiring those companies, the taxpayers for paying the taxes for the money to lay down the roads, all car manufacturers for building cars, the oil companies for providing gasoline for the car that his daughter was swerving around, the metal ore miners for providing the metal for the cars, the oil companies for providing materials that the roads are built with, the alcohol makers obviously, the bars obviously, the glass companies for making glass bottles and shot/wine glasses, the Federal reserve bank for issuing the currency that serves as the means of exchange to acquire things like alcohol, cars, oil, metal, roads etc. (for good measure).
Did I miss anything?
You can't handle the truth.
father buys son car that goes too fast. news at 11
It's not just Tesla of course but every performance vehicle that ends up wrapped around a pole or tree. Often it is because the acceleration encourages drivers to attain high speeds on sections of road that are not meant for it and for other practices such as racing the lights. It seems odd that states would impose speed restrictions but not impose acceleration restrictions. It should be relatively straightforward to regulate rates of acceleration in vehicles, especially in modern vehicles where it can be controlled in software.
> Get your eyes or your brain examined.
He made a simple mistake (like we all do) so you made a consicous effort to be a complete dick. So do you feel like a big man now?
I feel bad for the passenger. Normally I wouldn't because I'd say you knowingly got in the car with a hammered driver. In this case, I could see her saying "well, she's wasted, but she'll just autopilot us home.....why is she not using autopilot?"
This is a bad parent. A person that should never have had a child.
He, "raised" a child that, "Grew Up" to be a person that gets drunk and endangers the lives of everyone around because she wants to have a good time.
Her attitude that her wants trump everything else on the face of the planet, including the lives of other matches perfectly with a father
that put no responsibility on his daughter. He never has. In his eyes, she has never been responsible for any issue in her life. This is why
she grew up to be such and insufferable cunt.
Now that, "father" unable to put blame on the daughter or his own failure to raise a decent human being must look outside to find a reason
this happened. Now we look to the biggest pockets around and blame them.
I do not really like Tesla. I think that people that can not afford that car paying to give people that can tax breaks to make the car cheaper for the rich is fucking insane at best. They though are not at fault here. This was caused by an irresponsible cunt, raised by an incompetent parent.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
there have always been fast cars. god forbid it your stupid ass sons fault for being an artard
In the old days they used to put a limit on what kind of car and how much horsepower you could legally have on the road for this reason. So you don't have the potential to kill people. Not only drinking - Emotions of: Anger, being late, frustrated in a traffic jam are all triggers. 0-60 in 5 seconds was pretty dam fast when the 1960's cars came out.. But there was little traffic then, No bikers blowing stop signs. Or pedestrians crossing the road without even looking both ways before they cross anywhere. (You used to get ticketed for 'jay walking.')... If you want that kind of acceleration, join quarter mile racing and get it out of your system.
>>> "Had she been in another vehicle, she would have been alive for me to yell at her for driving after drinking,"
That's not actually how parenting works.
Drinking and driving, and someone is blaming the acceleration of the car they they owned. Sounds like a failure to the vehicle by the owner..
the bottom line is, guy cannot control her car, compounding the issue with drinking and driving is just fucking pathetic.. Those whom were driving should be arrested if survived..
no pitty here guys, move along move along..
The quote doesn't say to compare with a rocket-ship during vertical takeoff. Most rockets eventually turn sideways in which case the 11.8 m/s^2 of the rocket doesn't cancel with the 9.8 m/s^2 gravitational pull.
Perhaps you need to go back to school.
Apparently it's not the units that confuse you.
>Speckman has retained an attorney, and he's reportedly considering suing the automaker.
Seems to me the real problem is that the driving test in the US is way too lax. At a minimum they need to additionally include tests to ensure people can effectively recover and maintain control of a reasonably high performance car at the limits of its cornering performance. i.e. actually learn how to drive properly.
This is obviously just a lame attempt at a money-grab but it seems he won't have a leg to stand on in court.
That said, the US already has legislation that directly adversely affects the bodyshape of any car sold in the US, because it has to be designed to also protect people illegally driving without their seatbelt on, so I guess there's already an element in law of not being responsible for your own direct choices.
The moral of this is to buy a VW... you never have to worry about your vehicle being too powerful.
If you are approaching something that you didn't expect to see, you should be slowing the fuck down, not trying to swerve away into god knows what. This gives your brain more time to assess the situation, and you can then try to *safely* and slowly pull over, because you can look for a safe place to move the car off to the side instead of pointing the car randomly at what may be something just as bad or maybe worse.
Of course she was drunk anyways, and her judgement was impaired which can prevent her from making rational decisions but if while she was being taught to drive it had been hammered into her brain that using the brake was to become the *instinctive response* to any unexpected situation while driving, then she probably wouldn't have been swerving into a tree in the first place.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The electric car motors are also for breaking. I may never want to accelerate that fast but I want to know that I can decelerate that fast.
really... His question is, "why do they have to make a car like that?"
and not...
"Why did my daughter drive when she was so drunk?"
"Why did I buy a car that goes that fast?"
"Do I always tend to blame others?"
Look, I am sorry for his loss and i know he is just grieving. But, seriously, this is why us 'muricans can't have fun things. Just quit already and own up to your faults.
The Carrera was a race car that was made street legal. Even on Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson admitted it wasn't fun to drive because it was so touchy. There are plenty of other high horsepower cars that handle much better from companies like McLaren or Koenigsegg. Hell Koenigsegg even has a video showing how you can swerve the wheel at speed and not spin out.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Comment removed based on user account deletion
While it would be likely in this Tesla crash, in Walker's crash there was another aggravating factor: aged tires. Nine-year-old tires on a high-performance car are a recipe for disaster.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
If you can't be responsible for your own actions climb back under the rock from where you came from and stay there. This is the kind of crap that happens when lawyers run a country and run advertisements on TV that no matter what you do it's somebody else's fault let us sue them for you. People are not perfect we all make mistakes people with integrity admit their mistakes and don't try to blame them on somebody else.
I cry bullshit.. sounds like stoopid excuse for a millenneal decision.. Lets try to drive a vehicle I cant handle and while intoxicated.. I'll crash the car, but blame my lack of ability on the car it self.. If it was such a daunting task, why wasn't auto -pilot engaged??
...is null & void...you have a blood alcohol level like that & nothing else should be surprising & no blame can attach to the vehicle...
Tesla is ALWAYS blamed, no matter how stupid the user/driver is acting.
I was watching a porno. The Main female character was extremely attractive. Watching this individual do her activities was so intense, I ended up blowing my load in a matter of moments. Versus hours (snicker).
because of this, I beleive the movie I viewed is flawed. This I am filing a lawsuit to prop up my manhood, since I am unable to manage that aspect of my life as well so, I'll hire a lawyer and pawn it off somewhere..
I mean they're responsible for getting his daughter drunk right? They made that evil alcoholic brew she drank and so are totally liable. The fact that she willingly drank it is no excuse!
[/sarcasm]
Seriously, I wouldn't put it past him given that he seems to think lawsuits are a way to dull grief. I suppose it was too much to expect a lawyer to find anything approaching a conscience and quietly tell him to go home and grieve properly then get back to us if you still want to go through with it.
The anguish of a parent who lost a child is not a good basis for establishing rules or laws.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
The other car was going the wrong way. I know reading and understanding is difficult but you could try harder.
Yeah. Late at night on a dark road. Narrow bridge leading to a secluded beach. Not his fault for taking a girl out there when he was drunk. Nope, just bad luck.
Even if the daughter isn't to blame, the owner of the car - her boss - who was also killed, gave her the keys (or whatever you use to operate the Tesla).
The driver is to blame. Whoever gave her the keys does not mitigate that meaningfully. It's really simple. Don't drive a high powered car unless A) you are competent to handle that vehicle when sober and B) are actually sober.
The daughter might be an adult but still relatively young whreas the boss was 44, old enough to have obtained a Tesla as a personal/company vehicle, yet he stupid enough to get drunk and allow another drunk to drive him home/wherever.
27 is more than old enough to know better than to drive drunk. That is not young and certainly not young enough to excuse such a lapse of judgement.
why is this on slashdot?
why is this news 4 nerds?
did Dice buy this place again?
He is free to blame whoever he wants.
No he really isn't. He can try but that just makes him an asshole trying to profit from the death of his daughter which is reprehensible. Tesla had nothing to do with his daughter's decisions.
That doesn't mean he is free to win money from Tesla at trial though.
He doesn't have to win money from Tesla to cost Tesla a lot of money defending against a frivolous lawsuit.
"I don't know why they have to make a car that does that."
The answer is because people want cars that do that.
The bigger question is why do people buy cars that do that. Machismo.
It's the driver's fault.
I don't think the Model S is the fastest car on the street, so the same argument would apply to other performance vehicles, possibly all of them depending on where you draw the line for a car being "too fast".
Another car was driving the wrong way on the street? Sue him. It might actually work if you get a sympathetic jury.
Driver was 3X the legal alcohol limit? While I have sympathy for the father, there is no excuse. I have seen drunk driving warnings repeatedly since childhood, and I am sure the driver did too. She broke the law and gambled with her safety---and lost.
I feel like this is a ridiculous lawsuit brought about by an ambitious attorney pressuring a heartbroken parent.
---
According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Most rockets eventually turn sideways in which case the 11.8 m/s^2 of the rocket doesn't cancel with the 9.8 m/s^2 gravitational pull.
Also keep in mind that the rocket increases its acceleration as it's going up. The 11.8 m/s^2 is only for the first seconds. By the time it's going sideways, acceleration is a lot higher.
Good. I'm glad she's dead. Stupid is what stupid does.
One less drunk on the road that could kill me sober.
Why not blame those who made the alcohol? They're more to blame IMHO. Dumb ass lawsuit.
DUIs kill so many people. I don't understand why we don't have mandatory ignition interlock breathalyzers in all vehicles? Sure, someone can get a passenger or another person who is not going to drive to blow to activate the vehicle, but what sober person would do that for an intoxicated person? Further, random re-tests can weed out faked initial blows.
Yes, there would be an expense, but much like seat belts, it would save lives. Even more, it would save innocent lives who are not at fault.
We this isn't mandatory for all DUI offenders for life is beyond comprehension for me. This person has already been caught once, and we all know it wasn't the first time they did it. They will repeat. Mandating it for 6 months, 3 years, whatever short time frames is just enough to get sober and clean, thinking one has a handle on the situation, and then get to remove the device, and lapse back into DUI. Repeat offenders in Canada can require an interlock for life, but how many times DUI did it take before someone is caught enough times to receive this lifetime requirement?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignition_interlock_device
The daughter killed herself by driving drunk. Yet they choose to blame a car company rather than themselves for being bad parents.
Trying to blame the car is stupid. Lots of other vehicles accelerate just as fast if not faster. The real motivation here is money. They are trying to place the blame somewhere else so they can cash in on a settlement.
This shit needs to stop. Idiots like this need to be laughed out of the courts rather than having their profit motivated claims taken seriously. They are nothing more than a cancer to our entire society. They increase the costs on every single product and service that you buy.
You are a LOSER! and your daughter is too! I seriously hope your brand of idiocy doesn't get chance to breed any further. Blame the car for your daughter breaking the law?!! REALLY???
People like you are the reason why we can't have nice things!
"She was really, really drunk, drove way too fast and crashed and it's your fault."
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Sounds totally reasonable.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Why did they buy it then? Why did they get so drunk they couldn't tell which pedal is which? Why not brake? Oh and you think a 99 Chevy Cavalier or something has the brakes and tires and suspension to swerve around a car without skidding off the road? NOPE. It's actually safer to have a fast car if the driver isn't a drunk asshole.
...it's the stopping. Pretty sure the tree is to blame here, not the car.
Then again, I own a 4.2 second car and when I've done that kind of acceleration my car has never steered toward the nearest tree.
So maybe it's the driver.
Grieving father doesn't apply logic to reach a rational and objectice conclusion.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Norway has had 0.02 as the legal limit for _many_ years now, this basically means that you cannot drive after a single half liter of beer, glass of wine or a shot of whisky.
I.e. all driving after drinking is drunk driving. BTW, when Norway introduced a legal driving limit in 1936, it was the first country in the world to do so:
http://www.promille.no/promill...
This web site (in Norwegian) shows the current rules: 0.02 to 0.05% leads to a fine of 1.5 months worth of your gross salary (or average income if you're a stock broker or similar), which means that it can get very expensive indeed when if the driver is a rich idiot. (Those fines are for when you are stopped without any accident, in a crash they will go up and your insurance won't cover anything.)
At 0.12%, i.e. 50% over the US limit, you are looking at at least 21 days in prison on top of that huge fine.
We have a lot more Teslas per capita here than in any other country but I haven't heard of a single drunk driving incident so far.
"Fast cars don't kill people, bad drivers kill people."
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
The quote is bereft of detail. Apparently I and one of the other commenters just choose to apply details that result in one conclusion, while you chose others. The problem that has arisen here is when one of us delares the other incorrect.
Let me see... you have a giant stack of stack of lithium ion batters on wheels, you crash it, and it explodes. How is this a surprise?
...of that other genius argument made by the paragon of society progressives:
"If that guy wasn't carrying a concealed firearm, my son would be alive today."
Let's add the missing parts, shall we?
"If that guy had not been carrying a legally purchased and concealed firearm, my drug addicted son who attempted to rob him with an illegal firearm would still be out there harming other people today."
Such a winning argument.
This is the same thing. While we have no other evidence yet, it's a fairly accurate presumption that drunk drivers tend to make many poor choices in life.
Suck it up and teach people to make responsible decisions and this wouldn't have happened. This guy is mad because he didn't do that for his own daughter and no other reason.
I don't usually side with Tesla because they are very wrong in some of the accident cases, but honestly?
She was DUI, no one forced her to drive, no one forced whoever the owner was to buy the car, and from what the investigation has come up with so far, it was the fault of another driver who was going the wrong way.
It's no use clinging to if scenarios. If we didn't have a culture that worships fast cars, if she knew better not to drive a fast car after drinking, if speed limit laws were properly obeyed and applied, if the streets weren't so tight, if automated driving was already around and working well, if electric cars didn't use batteries that can explode on impact, if the city provided public transportation and security good enough so no one needed to get a car, if if if.
I'm sorry for this father's loss, but I can even imagine that the car owner bought it considering the acceleration as bonus point. At the very least, this is shared responsibility. The only reason why car manufacturers keeps making cars that goes into dangerous speeds and with dangerous features is because people buy them.
I mean, really, we could all have cars that can never go over a certain speed limit and never accelerate too fast. It'd not only be easy to make, but also cheaper. If money was invested on efficiency and other features instead of speed, acceleration and whatnot, we'd probably also have gone past the whole oil dependancy thing by now. And I won't even mention the ammoung of accidents we would not have if we didn't live in an alcohol driven and dependant society. Alas, it is what it is.
It's the car (gun), not the person using it.
If only we would do away with cars.
In Texas you can be charged with a felony in Texas for a DWI offense if Your DWI violation occurred with a car accident where another person suffered serious bodily injury or death.
Add in the 'Felony Murder Rule' where if someone dies because you commit a felony, you can be charged with Murder.
That woman Murdered her passenger.
Apparently the passenger let her drive his car in that state also. Not like he didn't know. Seems that it took several idiots this time, but driving SOMEONE ELSE'S car when really drunk takes the cake.
I'm getting sick of reading these pathetic stories of how it "wasn't their fault". This precious snowflake was a victim of that heinous auto-maker who built such a fabulous car. Never mind the drinking and irresponsible behavior. Probably will file a lawsuit too. Reminds me of the family who's twenty something moron son killed himself by launching a firework off the top of his head while the entire group cheered him on. They were on the news wanting to outlaw that type of firework and said they were thinking of suing. Not one word about how stupid and reckless they all were. No one takes responsibility for their own actions anymore.
In Texas you can get away with murder if you are rich enough to claim Affluenza. If you have your teen driving a Tesla... you might be rich enough if your judge in that area is poor enough... (no, you google it and find out.)
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Am I the only one who can see this resulting in Parental Car Controls?
Am I the only one who thinks it is nuts that we even could come to that? Children driving cars??
We trash our democracy over a few thousand dead people but when it comes to cars killing 40k PER YEAR we do nothing. I wouldn't let anybody under 18 drive and would be so hard on 18-21 that most wouldn't be eligible. I would also do serious yearly testing on everybody on the other side of the accident bell curve (retired people.)
My WW2 war hero neighbor smashed into a big yellow school bus and claimed he didn't see it! Turns out he was more truthful than he realized-- he was classified as legally blind afterwards because the cop did something which required the test. He was bitter about it too--- he claimed he saw good enough to drive but I think he was just pissed it was an Asian cop... you see, he thought all Asians were Japs and he still hated the Japanese.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
It's safer to blame the locks that let a halfwit sot into the driver's seat. Or blame the wheels that didn't refuse to obey a direct order from said drunken idiot. We can likewise blame the steering wheel, which did its job despite a series of stupid commands - shouldn't it be smarter than that?
Not to make fun of a borderline retarded grieving jerk whose spawn failed the Darwin test, but isn't it about time all the things were made smarter than people like his daughter?
People who drive drunk lose the ability to coordinate and she apparently could not use proper judgment in her use of the accelerator pedal. It may not have mattered a bit what vehicle she was in. A bicycle or a motor scooter with very slow acceleration can kill a drunk as easily as a Tesla. I am sorry for the father's grief but Tesla should sue him for this nonsense.
Of course, I don't care you who are, or how skilled of a driver you normally are. If you are three times the legal blood alcohol limit you cannot possibly handle any car properly. If the deceased driver had a car of lesser potential, she would have probably collided with the idiot going the wrong way instead.
As far as I'm concerned, the fault goes like this: A) The wrong way driver created an emergency situation, placing everyone else on that road that day in severe risk. B) Because of her asinine decision to drive drunk, the deceased was not capable of handling the emergency. She likely panicked and floored it to avoid the oncoming car. Thus, the wrong way driver caused the accident, the drunk driver's mistake(s) doubled down on the consequences of that accident. I'm pretty sure that even had she been in a more sedate vehicle, there still would have been an accident. If she had been sober behind the wheel of the Tesla, she might have been able to avoid the collision with the tree.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
last time I got super drunk I shat my pants and passed out, it's that fucking pair of underwear I was wearing, they cut into my stomach and pushed the poop out. Last time I got super drunk I was trying to cut a homeless person but I sliced the tip of my finger off, knife too sharp. Last time I got super drunk, I killed myself and my dad blamed my car.
And which one is that? How do accelerometers work, anyways? Are they all reading 9.8 m/s^2 all the time, because if I understand your post correctly it would seem in your world they do.
What a horrible thing it is for these two people to die. The lady's father, however, does not have a case. It's only going to be necessary to show the degree to which the lady was intoxicated, and no judge or jury is going to be swayed by allegations that the cause of death is at all related to the power of the car relative to other cars.
Bruce Perens.
The combination of this ludicrous story and the plethora of snarky comments ripping it to shreds really made my day.
/. great and kept me coming back for more in the late 90's.
This is the stuff that made
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
> If her foot should happen to hit the accelerator, it's like a rocket ship. I don't know why they have to make a car that does that
Whenever a sports car gets wrapped around a tree, nobody complains that the car's acceleration is a bug--it's very much a feature. See YouTube for an endless supply of videos of inexperienced redneck kids crashing their Mustangs and Camaros.
Learn to drive these things properly, or else buy something else. And for fuck's sake, don't lend them to inexperienced drivers. Especially when they're bound to go and get drunk on top of that.
There's a lot of blame to go around in this story, but none of it is deserved by Tesla IMO, and I'm just about the last guy to ever defend them.
drunk driver drives drunkly and dies
natural selection working perfectly
... not news
I would like to apologize for my previous comment being overly pedantic and low on the "I can understand rocket physics" scale.
is unfortunately his daughter was an inadequately trained driver in addition to acting irresponsibly and illegally. Pure money grab.
You and the other commenter are incorrect because you're supposed to choose details that make the quote rational, not irrational. Please get familiar with the principle of charity.
that.
Because that's what she wanted. She wanted performance, risk and excitement in a car and was prepared to mix it with alcohol. She was at her limit and someone else screwed up. Was the vehicle in control? No. Both parties to blame? Yes. Case closed.
Personal responsibility.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Seems to be resolved already.
No one is saying it, but given the car was her BOSS's car (who was the passenger) and they BOTH got drunk at the same corporate event, I bet the conversation went something like this, "Hey, I'll let you give it to me in the ass if you let me race your car home tonight!"
The news article (an exclusive) reads more like well-coached groundwork for a product-liability lawsuit ...
I agree. The woman was legally drunk and is (at least in some states) automatically guilty of causing any accident. Insane mode, if this particular vehicle even has it not all model 3's do, has to be manually selected by the driver.
As tragic as this case is, this does not sound at all like a grieving parent. This sounds to me more like someone with their hand out looking for a payoff. Quite shameful actually.
Watching the video fta is shockingly like watching fireworks. That thing is nasty when it catches fire.
Imagine a pileup of these on a freeway? Fuck being around that!
I assume this was modded down because it doesn't suck that she died, because otherwise i see nothing wrong with this post
How's life in the hypocrite lane?
And someone probably forced her to buy a sports car. Sorry, sympathy for losing his daughter, but there really is only one person to blame and we all know who it is.
Was it her car or the passenger's? Might have been the 44 year old dude's car and he trying to win points with a 27 year old woman by letting her drive.
And why does he not blame the liquor manufacturer? or the bartender who poured her more drinks than she should handle? or the company that organized an alcohol-fueled outing without providing transport for the inebriated? or the Kennedy's just because? or generalized stress from living in an insane society leading to alcohol abuse? therapists for not catching this? the city for not preventing people from driving against the direction of a one way street? There's enough blame to go around.
Yep
Had she been in another vehicle, she would have been alive for me to yell at her for driving after drinking,
Really? Really? 'Cause no other drunk driver EVER wrapped themselves around a tree while driving a slower car?
This asshole is just trying to pump a settlement. I hope Tesla refuses to settle, takes this fucktard to court, wins, and counter-sues for legal fess/costs.
Enough of the age of irresponsibility. If you buy a fast car and then drive it while drunk, you have no one to blame but yourself for your poor judgement -- your death is on your own hands.
The accident was covered in the news as the scope dictated.
It is NOT, however, news to share the unreasonable misery-driven lashings-out of the father.
Anyone might find themselves similarly lashing out were such a tragedy to happen so close to (home).
Yet, this is NOT newsworthy crap. Let the man grieve in private!
Now go find a worth bit of news!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.