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Definitely the limo driver fault. Driver of the Mercedes should obviously get charged with dd, but nothing else. Driver of limo, should get involuntary manslaughter, for being an idiot.
Both should be hanged for their wanton negligence that contributed to the deaths of a number of people.
Fact is that the Mercedes driver is going to be (and has been) charged with serious crimes, and he is very unlikely to avoid them unless he can get the test results discredited or thrown out. Doesn't matter if it was his fault; the Lincoln driver could have hit him (effectively, he did). But we always need a victim and a perpetrator in every story. The Lincoln driver, no matter how negligent or reckless, will get nothing but a failure to yield traffic violation despite basically driving into oncoming traffic on a highway, and some civil lawsuits against someone who likely has limited insurance and no meaningful assets.
The Mercedes drivers' BAC was within the legal limits until it was lowered +/- 15 years ago. 20% of all adults on the road are on anti-depressants. Another 10% prescription pain killers. Two-third of all adult Americans are on prescription meds of some sort. There is no reliable test for THC levels, so you can pretty much drive stoned all you wish. At any moment, it is highly likely the person driving next to you is playing with less than a full deck, and 99% of Americans simply do not know how to drive sober. Choosing sides to blame or what risk enhancing conduct is okay is not going to solve any problems, or bring back the poor ladies killed for no reason.
Both should be hanged for their wanton negligence that contributed to the deaths of a number of people.
I don't know about hanged but I agree with your sentiment that BOTH drivers are responsible. There is no way the MB driver did not see the limo and should have slowed down considerably and the limo driver most probably did not look left. I would lean the scale of responsibility towards the limo driver but the MB driver carries a lot of it.
You drive a lot and rarely see someone obviously drunk. So what? Being moderately drunk slows down reaction time and impairs judgement...the driver doesn't have to be visibly weaving around to be a danger on the road. Someone could look perfectly fine on the road to your well trained eyes...and then present them with a potential accident situation, and their extra fraction of a second reaction time due to their lack of sobriety can be the difference maker.
In this accident, the limo driver was wrong. If the Mercedes driver was not impaired and was fully alert, it's possible they may have avoided the accident with evasive maneuvers or at least slowed down enough/maneuvered enough to lessen the lethality of the impact, and maybe some of the victims would be alive right now. You have to assume everyone on the road is a moron (kind of like how one must approach posting on this forum) - so driving while impaired, even if one can manage it OK, makes them less equipped to act quickly and skillfully when they encounter a moron such as this limo driver.
I will agree that many livery and T&C drivers suck in terms of skill level.
Drunk driving is a real problem, it is not an excuse to ignore any other problems. Why do people think everything is a zero sum game? Drunk driving is a problem...and sober people driving like imbeciles is a problem. A lot of T&C drivers suck. Those can all be true at the same time.
nothing will change unless the law puts the steepest penalties on the stupidest things.
drive drunk and over the legal limit? sorry, you can't drive the rest of your life.
kill someone while driving drunk also? sorry, minimum jail sentence with no early release and you can't ever drive again
put those hard consequences in peoples heads and only the true idiot will try and do it but at least you will keep a true idiot off the road forever.
same principles with illegal gun possession, take tons of things from these people. zero tax refunds, zero driving privileges, higher personal taxes for being a liability in the world. if you don't want to put these people in jail for life then hurt them outside of jail with tons of lose of privileges and lifetime fines.
It's very clear that the Lincoln was responsible for the crash although the Benz driver could have slowed down. The way idiots drive in NYC metro, I am surprised that this doesn't happen more often. The saddest part is the lives lost. I also noticed that in these types of negligent driving, drunk driving incidents, it tends to be the innocents who get hurt/lose their lives. Clearly the Lincoln driver is alive despite engaging in terrible driving.
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