Sense prevails in Las Vegas…almost
June 9th, 2009 at 11:46am
About two weeks ago I was confused by the thinking behind the answers being provided to a poll on the KXNT website.
The question was:
The [police] officer who was killed in a crash last week was driving 109 mph [175 km/h] with no lights, sirens or seatbelt. The other driver who turned in front of him had been drinking, but was not legally DUI. Who is at fault?
And the results at the time of writing that blog post were:
The Officer. He was totally reckless. ( 57% )
Mostly the officer, but the driver contributed. ( 24% )
Both of them. It was a “perfect storm”. ( 15% )
Mostly the driver, but the officer contributed. ( 2% )
The driver. He was still impaired. ( 2% )
I was part of the 57% and couldn’t comprehend how people could believe the other three answers, especially the last two.
I’m pleased to be able to report that the authorities in Vegas have seen sense, and dropped all charges against the driver.
Metro Police have dropped all charges filed for last month’s crash that took the life of Officer James Manor.
Officer Manor was killed back on May 7th when his police cruiser collided with a pickup truck driven by Las Vegas resident Calvin Darling.
Darling was initially arrested for DUI and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, but was later released when tests revealed his blood alcohol content was not over the legal limit. Further investigation revealed that Officer Manor was traveling 109 miles-per-hour with no emergency lights or sirens on just before the crash.
With the investigation now complete, police say they’ve determined the accident was caused by Officer Manor’s excessive speed, and that Darling was not at fault.
Police recommended that District Attorney David Roger drop all charges against Darling, and Roger agreed, calling the case “a tragedy all around.”
(line breaks added by Samuel for readability purposes)
There is one part of the story which still leaves me puzzled though, and that is the original cause of Officer Manor’s decision to speed and what authorities have decided to do about it:
In addition, Metro says no charges will be filed against the 14-year-old girl who placed the fraudulent 911 call prompting Officer Manor’s rapid response.
A fake 911 call which results in a death, and no penalty? Not even community service? If it were up to me, she would be working alongside the emergency services for a while so that she comes to grips with the extraordinary work these people do, and why you can’t waste their time with fake emergency calls.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: General News,Samuel's Editorials
