Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Assault (1 Viewer)

[Meeks]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

There is a few things here that make me wonder...
For one, his bail is only set at $35,000, for "taking the life of someone" its usually pretty high up there, this could be a minor detail but for me, working in the legal field it doesnt seem to add up.
Also, he was indicted by the grand jury which means there must be something else that we do not know about and if I had to take a wild guess I'd say its that crash renactment that we have no results for. I will be the first to tell you I think these charges are BS and he shouldnt be criminally charged when the "victims" are going after him already civilly for probably every penny he has. I say "victims" because how much are they really victims? These people were not forced to be where they were, it was their choice to go there. Was it their choice to lose their life over it? No. BUT, if they were told where to stand by law enforcement and they didnt obey, well thats their fault and nobody should be held accountable for their stupid actions. God Bless those who did lose their lives in this horrific crash but shame on their families for being inconsiderate and suing everyone they can think of! I'm totally in support for getting paid for medical bills etc, but we all know that theres a bunch of "pain and suffering" in there. Flame me if you want but thats just my opinion!

 

[clwill]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

Case in point, I was in the stands at Pomona when Herbert's parts flew everywhere. Had my son, grandson or family member been unfortunately taken from us due to the incident, I wouldn't have sued NHRA, Herbert or anybody else for being there. I'm smart enough and brave enough to accept responsibility for the obvious inherent risks that do exist.

This is really easy to say in the abstract, in the "what I would do" case, but most people find the reality quite different. When it actually does happen, the quest for answers, the tearing at your guts for revenge, and the lust for money as a substitute for the loss can become overwhelming.

I was part-owner of a racing school in which a young lady died. She slammed the gas instead of the brake and hit the wall, dying instantly. Her family, a racing family for generations, swore they fully understood and wouldn't sue. Yet, convinced by lawyers that our insurance company would pay just to go away -- there would never be a trial, and we would never pay a dime -- they sued for, and got, millions. The school was ruined by the insurance cost increases, and the implication that the settlement was an admittance of guilt.

It's easy to say what you would do in the face of tragedy. It's another thing entirely to live it.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

According to Tennessee law, vehicular homicide is the reckless killing of another by the operation of an automobile, airplane, motorboat or other motor vehicle, as the proximate result of:

• Conduct creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to a person;
• As the proximate result of conduct constituting the offense of drag racing; or
• By the driver's intoxication. Intoxication includes alcohol intoxication, drug intoxication, or both.

...And there you have it, the only reason he's charged is because he was the driver but those first two "bullets" are a bunch of BS...If it didnt involve just the drivers actions, every single person that helped put that event on would be charged with vehicular homicide. I cant see this holding up in court but I sure hope he has a good attorney to fight it.

Surely an attorney can say that since COPS were telling people where to stand that, this was in some form LEGALLY sanctioned? If I said to a cop "Hey, will you help me rob this bank?" and he did? You KNOW that cop would be charged with me.

It shouldn't but, it just amazes me that our tax dollars have been spent over the last nine months to come to this. I strongly disagree with him having to spend more than burial costs or medical bill as far as the civil side goes. Again, to go after him CRIMINALLY? That's insane! What's the REASON? To teach him not to do that again? To punish him for doing what how many before him did, again, with the assistance of police officers? Obscene.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

It's easy to say what you would do in the face of tragedy. It's another thing entirely to live it.

With all due respect, Mr. Williams, I have lived it! More than once -- with more than one family member, and without elaboration, I can tell you without hesitation that I WILL NOT SUE where a shred of responsibility was my own. One should never generalize about such matters. Feel free to PM me for additional details if you still feel I should be lumped in with the litigious masses and I'll gladly set you straight. I'll have my integrity when I pass and nothing else. That's where I concentrate my life's effort.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

If they convict him and give him time, maybe they can have one of the cops who was there doing crowd control be the one to lead him away!

Our legal system is off the rails. How could you sit on a grand jury and, knowing that police officers were there helping with this, determine that Troy should have known better? If hairs have to be split to determine this thing's legality to the point that the COPS there didn't know it was illegal? Surely, that would play a huge part in one's defense.

 

[Tim5636sc]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

Being charged with a crime is not the same as being CONVICTED of one. As much as I believe that Troy made a HUGE error in Judgment, he should not be singled out in this case. I think that it's gonna be very difficult to find a Non-Bias Jury of his Peers in Selmer, Tennessee, a place where many of the residents are still looking for "somebody" to blame for this tragedy. However, Troy and any other person who performs a "Burnout" on any place except for a Drag Strip must be accountable for their actions when something does not go well. We are Licensed Drivers in an Organization that was founded to prevent exhibitions of speed like this. If you make a mistake like this, you have to be willing to accept the punishment that will come with it.

No matter what happens here, there will be no Lemonade made from these lemons, and that is the real shame here!

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

There's just something very wrong with cops assisting him in the act, then leading him from a courtroom to jail.

If someone else booked me in to do a burnout at THEIR event, just how responsible am I for the crowd's safety? When it's organized to the point of having police officers doing crowd control? I don't think the majority of people BEFORE this accident would have said "no" due to liability reasons.

I think being civilly/financially responsible under those circumstances should be a stretch. CRIMINALLY???

 

[Tim5636sc]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

There's just something very wrong with cops assisting him in the act, then leading him from a courtroom to jail.

With all due respect Ron, the "Cops" were not in the car with him. They didn't force him to strap in and do this. Neither did the organizers of the event, or his crew, AMS Pro Mod league, the NHRA, or anyone else in Selmer Tennessee that day. It was his choice, and sadly he alone will have to answer to the charges, and everyone else involved and these "Cops" will not be at fault at all. It seems in our justice system that Individuals get blamed..not groups of people. Hopefully this will convince those who are planning to do something like this type of exhibition on the street, to take it to the TRACK!

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

With all due respect Ron, the "Cops" were not in the car with him. They didn't force him to strap in and do this. Neither did the organizers of the event, or his crew, AMS Pro Mod league, the NHRA, or anyone else in Selmer Tennessee that day. It was his choice, and sadly he alone will have to answer to the charges, and everyone else involved and these "Cops" will not be at fault at all. It seems in our justice system that Individuals get blamed..not groups of people. Hopefully this will convince those who are planning to do something like this type of exhibition on the street, to take it to the TRACK!

If he was breaking the law, it was their jobs to stop him from doing it. Not help him! If the situation was so vague that the COPS WHO WERE HELPING didn't know that he LEGALLY shouldn't have been doing this, how was Troy supposed to know that he could end up facing criminal charges for being booked in to put a show on at someone else's event?

If it was really done in the middle of nowhere in a real "outlaw" fashion without the cops knowing, I could maybe see going after the people who put it together. I just think if you're going to prosecute the guy CRIMINALLY that, the law should be clear enough that any COP should be able to recognize that it's being broken, much less several of them. If Troy should have known, ONE of the cops there should have known.

Again, I just think they should leave him alone or indict a LOT more people for being accessories. His trial begins AFTER every else's statute of limitations will have run out.

I don't think anyone's going to disagree with you now about where this shouldn't be done.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

A drug kingpin used to live in the county I grew up in. I went to school with their son (getting into a fight with him at one point, LOL) who was always dressed like the most impoverished kid there. Turns out it was all a front, that they had luxury homes in Miami and Denver, yachts, sports cars, etc. On this farmland (that wasn't farmed while they lived there, hello) with a shack in the middle, our county deputies were paid $10 an hour (over 20 years ago, it was very good money then) to moonlight by sitting in Jeeps as security guards with fully automatic weapons. When Jerry LeQuire was arrested and it all came down, these guys said they never suspected anything was improper! That's the other end of the spectrum from this situation. Common sense tells you that those cops knew better.

Edit. HA! I decided to google Jerry just to see what they've been up to. Chucky's the one I got into it with! The Daily Beacon

If SEVERAL cops are assisting in an event that is now only conveniently deemed to be illegal in nature AFTER something went wrong? No. I hope his defense attorney(s) beat the hell out of this. This is too much like making the law up as you go along. If it took an investigation and a grand jury THIS LONG to determine that they think Troy broke the law, how was HE supposed to determine that when he, again, gets booked in to someone else's show?

We ALL now know that he shouldn't have done it based on the results that already happened. I think that's a pretty simple point to make. To say that he should have been concerned with criminal charges? As if those would have been the worst of his worries had he owned a crystal ball? If you're going to CRIMINALLY prosecute someone with FELONY CHARGES, I think the person should have been able to reasonably known that they were breaking the law in the first place.

 

[Patti]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

With all due respect Ron, the "Cops" were not in the car with him. They didn't force him to strap in and do this. Neither did the organizers of the event, or his crew, AMS Pro Mod league, the NHRA, or anyone else in Selmer Tennessee that day. It was his choice, and sadly he alone will have to answer to the charges, and everyone else involved and these "Cops" will not be at fault at all. It seems in our justice system that Individuals get blamed..not groups of people. Hopefully this will convince those who are planning to do something like this type of exhibition on the street, to take it to the TRACK!

I am wondering if Troy was paid. Of course the charity gets their fair share of something, but, where did the donations come from for this event? Were there paying advertisers? Someone should have demanded, and paid for better crowd control. There are many levels of "failure to protect the public" here, ending with the saddest.

The cops were not in charge of this thing, I hope. Taxpayers pay cop salaries, not a lot of dedication there. Tim says it best... take it to the track. Everyone knows their job there, and it's a "race track", flat and true (for the most part). This really upsets me. I could not have been more pleased when they quit the yearly burn-out show in my town. It's just not safe. Thank gosh for the all the safety precautions at the tracks, but I truly am aware of my surroundings, all on my own, always, even when racing locally with our hotrod (at Union Grove, Wisconsin, the oldest-looking track in the world). I would have expected more from a licensed pro, frankly. Spectators don't stand on starting lines, nor anywhere beyond, for a reason.

Bottom line, even sportsman class should not attempt these things relying on others to do a job they know nothing about. Especially the spectators. Being told to "stand back" means nada to an excited race fan. Complacency is no excuse. Catastophe, which this was, can be easily be avoided with planning. This was not an "accident".

Very sad.

 

[ProStockJunkie]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

I had to testify at a trial of a similar nature about 25 years ago. The defense attorney was gunning for the same type of "percentage of blame" for his client, the drunk driver, whom I witnessed blast through a stop sign at full throttle and broad-side an elderly couple driving down the street. He ended up being convicted and did time, the company whose truck he was driving and by whom he was employed (their insurance company, actually) settled the civil suit if I recall correctly.

I hope you managed to escape unscathed from the accident. The folks that got hit in the incident I described above were injured pretty badly but lived, thankfully, although the injuries slowed them considerably. Turned out they were parents of a client of mine although I didn't know it at the time of the accident.

Thanks for the concern Tom. I was fine, but my left front fender prevented me from getting out of the car to check on the occupants of the other car. I slid over the consol and got out on the passenger side, because I heard a child crying. What I found was the driver, the father, kneeling down, looking under his car, instead of attending to his child. When I got to the car, I said, 'Is everyone ok? I hear someone crying'. He picked himself up from the pavement and said 'everyone APPEARS to be ok..... at this time'. I just went back to my car and waited for the police, because I knew what lay ahead.

By the way, everyone, including the child, who was just frightened, was ok. However, a few months later, I was served with papers, and found that the mother and father were suing me for 1 million dollars each. The papers stated that the wife was suffering neurological problems 'caused by the accident' ... was in pain and had to give up her home interior decorating business.

Thank goodness for a good lawyer, who thoroughly investigated both, as well as their 7 previous lawsuits, which resulted from 8 accidents they'd been involved with in nearly as many years. She found out that the woman had been treated for Lymes Disease for over a year, and her 'symptoms' were exactly the same. They could have been involved in 8 lawsuits I guess, if they'd sued the deer they hit in one of the 8 accidents. Perhaps a deer tick jumped off the carcass and landed on her and gave her the Lyme's.

Seriously, I'm glad no one was hurt as a result of the accident I was involved in with these people, even though it was 100% their fault. I was going just under 35 mph.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

Been away for a week.

While I even disagree with financial damages being awarded that go beyond burying the dead and paying the hospital bills for the injured (I just don't agree with people making a profit due to someone else's accident), going criminal with this just makes no sense at all.

Nobody can disagree that it shouldn't have been done. If he'd lost control and spun out in front of the same crowd without touching anyone, he never would have been charged with anything. I don't think you can logically say that he was only a CRIMINAL the moment the car struck someone. If the show would have gone off without a hitch, he'd been a hero and they'd be doing it again this year.

The cops weren't in the car but, they helped this event happen with an attempt at crowd control.

If something's illegal to the point that you can be criminally prosecuted, I think the law should be such that you can figure that out BEFORE you commit the act. Not just, "Oh, you can do this unless it goes wrong. Then you're a criminal." That's baloney. Again, it should have been obvious enough that the people whose job it is to enforce the law would have known to STOP this, not HELP it. The fact that they're not charging everyone who assisted as accessories? If he broke the law, you KNOW they did. This really is only applying the law when it's convenient to.

 

[Tim5636sc]

Re: Driver in Deadly Tennessee Drag-Racing Crash Charged With Vehicular Homicide, Ass

Been away for a week.

While I even disagree with financial damages being awarded that go beyond burying the dead and paying the hospital bills for the injured (I just don't agree with people making a profit due to someone else's accident), going criminal with this just makes no sense at all.

Nobody can disagree that it shouldn't have been done. If he'd lost control and spun out in front of the same crowd without touching anyone, he never would have been charged with anything. I don't think you can logically say that he was only a CRIMINAL the moment the car struck someone. If the show would have gone off without a hitch, he'd been a hero and they'd be doing it again this year.

The cops weren't in the car but, they helped this event happen with an attempt at crowd control.

If something's illegal to the point that you can be criminally prosecuted, I think the law should be such that you can figure that out BEFORE you commit the act. Not just, "Oh, you can do this unless it goes wrong. Then you're a criminal." That's baloney. Again, it should have been obvious enough that the people whose job it is to enforce the law would have known to STOP this, not HELP it. The fact that they're not charging everyone who assisted as accessories? If he broke the law, you KNOW they did. This really is only applying the law when it's convenient to.

Hey Ron...I have a quick question.... If you were there...and you were watching this event....What would you have done? Would you have asked them to stop this before somebody got hurt? Or let it go? Just wondering what your opinion of this type of activity is...