So, today was a very bad day for me. I was awoken way too early by phone calls from stupid people asking for stupid things. Like did I know that the warranty on my 6 year old car expired 3 years ago? And did I want to pay $2000 to renew it? Can I donate monies to the fire department (even though I already did)? Did I have a moment to take a 20 minute survey regarding the education of my children (even though I don't have any).
Just a bad day. To say that I was not in my happy place would be an understatement.
So, I went outside to grab my newspaper, brewed a pot of coffee, and sat down, determined to turn this day around.
Then I read the stupidest story ever. And I have to tell you, of all those times when other human beings have made me embarrassed to be a human - this story ranks right up there.
Apparently, there was a pretty bad accident a few weeks ago. I remembered hearing the traffic reports over the radio about this accident. The accident had been between 3-4 cars initially, and a few secondary vehicles had eventually been added to the mix simply because they didn't stop in time.
According to this report, 3 people died - DIED - including one little girl of 2 years old, a little boy of 8 who had been on his way to school, and the mother of these two children.
What caused such a horrible accident? Road Rage. The mother was traveling, allegedly, about 3-4 miles an hour under the posted speed limit, and a man in another car got upset.
Now I don't know the details and exactly what the man did in his rage. What I do know is that he was honking, started swerving trying to get around the woman, and ended up hitting another car that spun into the woman's car. Her car was subsequently spun into a truck. The man lived.
Not only did the man live, but he got off with nothing - NOTHING - because of temporary insanity caused by the rage he felt at the time. Apparently, his defense was based on the fact that this man's life was stressed and he had to get to work quickly, and this woman hadn't been traveling the speed limit. So angry, according to his defense attorney, that temporarily he could not fathom the consequences of his actions while trying to get around the woman - and therefore could not be held responsible for the resulting accident that left this mother and her two children dead,
Are you kidding me? That's the type of society we want to create? Where people can fly off into a rage and not be accountable for their actions because they're mad? I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes say things I don't truly mean when I'm angry - but I'm still accountable for those things, and I still apologize for those things I've done that were wrong - even if I did them solely out of anger.
This has to be one of the most ridiculous, gross mishandlings of justice I have ever seen. It's no wonder people seem to be losing faith in our justice department - when they let shit like this happen.
While I agree with the verdict in this case being crap (there is no excuse for road rage, not even temporary insanity), I feel I wouldn't be doing my duty if I didn't point out here that the insanity plea isn't used often and is successful even less often.
So, now that I've done my duty, I hope your day gets better quickly!
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Soar high and laugh on the wind
~Fallon~
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."- Thoreau
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Still better than my day yesterday. Pretty sure you can't beat that for a while. Fallon can easily...
That's ridiculous, though.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Getting a little upset because somebody's under the speed limit, I can understand. My mother, however, is completely unreasonable. If you're not at least 5-7 OVER the speed limit, she gets pissed and yells about you needing to drive the speed limit. And everybody HAS to start accelerating the INSTANT the light turns green - never mind the fact that there are 20 cars in front of us and one can't go until the one in front of it is out of the way.
I don't need drugs - I have genetics.
I don't know. I drive the speed limit, and could pretty much care less if people honk. I fully stop at all stop signs, and I never speed up just to make a light before it changes.
In fact, I got rear-ended once because there was a car behind me while I was approaching a stop sign who expected me to roll through, wasn't paying attention, and hit me when I stopped.
I've just never been in a huge hurry to get anywhere via car. I don't see the point in speeding. I watch all the time as people honk and fight and speed their way up past me, only to get stopped by the same red light a few blocks down the road.
Ridiculous.
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"when you have nothing else to say, "Fwonk" is always the perfect thing."
"yeah well, fwonk"
--Devon
Fanaile Essence
Watching people drive in town always cracks me up. Let's accelerate the instant the light turns green so we can be the first to the next red! Yeah, yeah, sounds like fun! Way to waste our gas!
I don't need drugs - I have genetics.
There's actually a string of stoplights downtown near where I work (on a one-way street) that turn green one after the other. They're timed just right, though, that if you do more than about 30 off the line of the last one, you will have to stop before the next one turns green. I watch so many people that not only floor it when the light turns green, but actually start rolling through the intersection before the light even turns!
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I just wish they would time them better here. As soon as the light turns red at an intersection, the others turn green. Since no one can figure out that red means stop, we have so many accidents. I never go anywhere as soon as the light turns. I stop and make sure I'm not going to get hit by yet another moron who can't fathom that red means stop before I start going anywhere. I hate Little Rock drivers.
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~Fallon~
“What is insanity, anyway? Is it when you scream and everyone else whispers, or is it when you fight for what's right, even when everyone else thinks your wrong?” Ethergoth
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"Not only did the man live, but he got off with nothing - NOTHING - because of temporary insanity caused by the rage he felt at the time. Apparently, his defense was based on the fact that this man's life was stressed and he had to get to work quickly..."
Everybody's life is stressed, at least some of the time. I work in a daycare center, and while I love my job most of the time, it can be very stressful and down right frustrating. Today I had a five year old who wouldn't listen to anything I said, squirmed aways from me and ran across the room every time I tried to talk to him, and broke just about every rule we have. Another child found all of this amusing and decided to imitate what he was doing, while some others spent the time I was distracted with the first child pushing each other. By nap time I was ready to scream, rip my hair out, and knock some heads together in frustration, but as frustrated, angry, and stressed as I was, I was still accountable for my actions, and would have faced serious consequences if I had allowed my rage to compromise the safety of anyone in the center.
Rage is not an excuse for killing a family. If a person is so stressed, late, and vulnerable to insanity that they can't control their "road rage" they should not be driving, and the man that caused that accident should be held accountable for his actions.
"Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible."
In our place drivers have no discipline they always beating the red light. Hit and run is a very normal accident in my city.
-Jan
Self-Improvement Advice
This stuff is becoming increasingly common as our roads and everything else about our existence becomes more congested.
I don't think we are going to change human nature. There will always be those humans among us who are operating on the edge of sanity and for whom it only takes a little irritating stimulous to go over the edge into a rage and violence.
I don't blame this on society. I blame it on a few individuals.
I don't think there is any act of self-introspection that society can undertake that will change this situation. I think the best thing we can hope for is to minimize the irritants that trigger this rage and the incredibly destructive behavior in some individuals. For starters, we could quit trying to cram ever more people onto roads that were designed for a much smaller population.