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Peer jailed for motorway texting


Guigsy

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Makes a mockery of our legal system if you ask me....

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7909510.stm

A Labour peer who sent and received text messages minutes before he was involved in a fatal crash on the M1 has been jailed for 12 weeks.

 

When you compare it to this...

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article864804.ece

Txting mum gets four years

A MOTORIST who was texting her husband as she ploughed into a teenage cyclist was jailed yesterday for four years for causing death by dangerous driving.

 

That guy should get banged up for a lot longer. If it was you or me im sure we would be!

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But txtmum was txting AT THE TIME of the accident, mr Labour man had stopped his dangerous driving by the time he hit the other car.

 

Seems like fair sentencing to me, he's being punished for dangerous driving, not causing death by dangerous driving; because he wasn't driving dangerously at the time of the causing of the death!

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As Tbourner said the MP wasn't texting at the time of the accident and so was not prosecuted for causing death by dangerous driving.

 

Mr Justice Wilkie said: "It's clear the dangerous driving had no causal link to the accident."

 

Mr Justice Wilkie made clear the texting incident had no bearing on the fatal collision
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mr Labour man had stopped his dangerous driving by the time he hit the other car.

 

As Tbourner said the MP wasn't texting at the time of the accident and so was not prosecuted for causing death by dangerous driving.

 

He was sending texts 3 minutes before he rang 999, after having the accident. I think it reasonable that it would take you 2 or 3 minutes to get yourself together after the crash happened before ringing 999.

 

Like I said, his lawyers managed to convince the court his texting had nothing to do with the crash, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

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He was sending texts 3 minutes before he rang 999, after having the accident. I think it reasonable that it would take you 2 or 3 minutes to get yourself together after the crash happened before ringing 999.

 

Like I said, his lawyers managed to convince the court his texting had nothing to do with the crash, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

 

Where do you get 3 minutes from?

 

His barrister, the judge and his solicitor all say it's CLEAR the txting wasn't related to the accident, I'm sure there must have been enough evidence (which we can't see) to PROVE it wasn't related.

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there is an article in the Times today about this. Seems to make it clear that the texts were nothing to do with the crash. Its possible he was checking/writing a text when the accident occurred, but equally likely he wasn't. And yes, he is kicked out of the labour party. Its does sound from the article that he the accident couldn't have been avoided, 2 other cars had already hit the killed drivers' car and visibility was very poor.

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Great time to be texting then, whilst hacking along the motorway in poor visibility!!!

 

And that's why he was given a custodial sentence - just for the texting alone. How many other times have you seen someone put away for texting that, it was established, did not cause an accident?

 

Has anyone here ever happened upon an accident in the dark, perhaps in poor visibility where a crashed car is sitting side on to you in the middle of the road? It takes a few seconds for you to actually believe your eyes - and if you're travelling at motorway speeds, that's a lot of yardage you've just covered before you even hit the brakes!

 

I remember when I was in the Police, being sent to accidents out in the sticks where a vehicle was blocking a road. I've managed a couple of times to get there before any other cars arrived on scene, and despite the fact that I was expecting to find a car in the road and knowing to within maybe a mile or so where it would be, I've still been surprised when I turned the corner to find a mangled hulk of a car covered in soil and bits of grass sitting (unlit) in front of me.

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I like the way the news stories hide away the fact that the, admittedly unfortunate, other driver had been drinking, smashed into the central reservation, spun his car and, depending on what you've read been hit or almost been hit by another car.

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