Donegal Crash: Respect for the dead?

Rois said:
Any punishment the courts may hand down to the driver will pale into insignificance - he already has a life sentence of his own making.
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See my original post - I did not say that the driver should be let off scott free by the courts, I think he should receive a fair sentence for his actions. I'm simply pointing out that he will spend the rest of his life with the deaths of 8 people on his conscience (assuming he's not a psychopath).
 
I see details are starting to filter through from the Gardai investigation.

Read that a combined speed of 140mph was involved in the collision that killed the 8 people. Assuming the man in his 60s coming from bingo was doing perhaps 40 or 50mph, it shows that this young driver was driving at a crazy speed.

Its really time that young people learned exactly what cars are capable of, and more importantly, what they aren't.
 
MrMan said:
well it if comes from the families affected then one might assume that they are best placed to make that call.
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Yes but what about the next time this person goes out driving? Who's to protect the rest of us, or will the next people he kills be entitled to ask the original 'victims' families why they thought he should be let off?

The driver had already been done for dangerous driving, didn't learn his lesson, caused the deaths of 8 people, was driving an NI registered car, is it legally insured? was he using a fake address for insurance?

while people might say, sure it's only VRT it's yet another sign of disrespect for the law which seems to be endemic in Donegal. what sort of a ban/fine was he given the first time?
 
There's plenty of big issues here, the NI reg is irrelevant imho.

There are loads of NI regs belonging to Donegal residents. I see them every day and know plenty.

I could go out tomorrow and buy an NI car, call my insurance company and tell them to change over my insurance. All they will ask for is the reg and many will accept an NI reg, simply adding "you'll be changing over to a DL plate soon then?" at the end. But it will be insured.
 
RMCF said:
I see details are starting to filter through from the Gardai investigation.

Read that a combined speed of 140mph was involved in the collision that killed the 8 people. Assuming the man in his 60s coming from bingo was doing perhaps 40 or 50mph, it shows that this young driver was driving at a crazy speed.
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Speculation, at best, unless you can back it up with evidence.

The Gardai would be using Km/h, metres etc. The man in is 60s could have been doing 60 or 70 mph. One cannot make assumptions based on scanty information.

There was obviously a speed factor, and this is quite obvious. There is no excuse for excessive speed or overloading of the car. The driver should be punished accordingly and hopefully this will have an impact on the other young male drivers in the area.

The car involved in the initial collision may have been slightly on the wrong side of the white line, which, when the Passat collided with it on the blind corner, caused the Passat to lose control which would not have been possible to correct due to the speed, momentum and kinetic energy involved by having the extra weight of the additional passengers, resulting in severe understeer and the the collision with the Corolla.
 
RMCF said:
True. You are meant to pay VRT and get a DL plate.
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Right - So most people will turn a blind eye towards this illegality in Donegal, and then most people are surprised when young guys turn a blind eye to speed limits/capacity limits/seat belt laws etc?
 
Complainer said:
Right - So most people will turn a blind eye towards this illegality in Donegal, and then most people are surprised when young guys turn a blind eye to speed limits/capacity limits/seat belt laws etc?
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So what you are saying is someone who doesn't pay their taxes is more likely to commit other crimes?

'Most' people in Donegal don't turn a blind eye towards this illegality. However, some people in border counties, not just Donegal, may have an issue paying VRT, when someone who lives a few miles away across the border can buy the same product for a third less. This is an entirely different issue of which there are threads available for debate on here and elsewhere.

I don't think the menatlity exists where people who drive NI reg cars flaunt road traffic legislation. One could also accuse drivers of cars imported from other EU countries such as Poland, Lithuania, latvia etc as being road traffic law breakers, but the majority of them are not.

A car is a car, no matter where it came from.
 
Being from the area where the accident occured, it appears that debris from the Passat was found further up the road from where the impact was. This would indicate that the Corolla 'pushed' the passat back the direction in which it came from after the impact. Now, assuming that the Corolla driver was doing a safe speed of around 70 - 80 km/h, and the weight of the passat with the extra passengers, the passat could not have been doing any great speed for that to happen. The laws of physics don't allow it. Although this distance is small it's still a distance. Both cars ended up in a ditch a few metres from where the impact was. This would imply that the combined force of the impact cancelled out the momentum of each car and causing them to mave laterally into the ditch. This also suggests that the passat was not moving fast. Judging by the state of the cars, it appears that the Passat was side-on to the corolla, perhaps skidding sideways.
 
colin79ie said:
Being from the area where the accident occured, it appears that debris from the Passat was found further up the road from where the impact was. This would indicate that the Corolla 'pushed' the passat back the direction in which it came from after the impact. Now, assuming that the Corolla driver was doing a safe speed of around 70 - 80 km/h, and the weight of the passat with the extra passengers, the passat could not have been doing any great speed for that to happen. The laws of physics don't allow it. Although this distance is small it's still a distance. Both cars ended up in a ditch a few metres from where the impact was. This would imply that the combined force of the impact cancelled out the momentum of each car and causing them to mave laterally into the ditch. This also suggests that the passat was not moving fast. Judging by the state of the cars, it appears that the Passat was side-on to the corolla, perhaps skidding sideways.
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Probably because they had just hit another car a few seconds before impacting with the Corolla.
 
RMCF said:
Probably because they had just hit another car a few seconds before impacting with the Corolla.
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This fact is well known. But the question has yet to be answered whether the initial impact was caused by the Passat being on the wrong side and hitting the Megane, or if the Megane was on the wrong side of the white line, causing the Passat to collide with it as it did.

Locals have reported that a lady driving to Buncrana saw the woman, who she knew, in the Megane and stopped to ask if she was ok. While talking, both of them then heard the impact of the other two cars around the corner. This could also suggest that the Passat was stopped or stopping as the time taken for this meeting to come about and then the impact afetrwards would suggest minute(s) between the initial impact and the final one. The excessive speed reported by the pasat would not afford that much of a time difference, considering the final impact was 150 metres up the road.

My own personal opinion is that the Passat struck the Megane at speed, lost control ( airbags deployed?) and then wobbled, skidded to a halt further up the road on the wrong side, with the passenger side facing oncoming traffic. The Corolla then came around the corner at a 'normal' speed and colided side on with the Passat, pushing it back down the road and into the ditch, with the Corolla landing on top of the Passat.

This is all however speculation and cannot be backed up with evidence from any reports, other than local knowledge. The real details should emerge as time goes on.
 
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The issue still being that it was the Passat travelling at excessive speed with excess weight that ultimately caused the accident and the deaths of eight men
 
colin79ie said:
So what you are saying is someone who doesn't pay their taxes is more likely to commit other crimes?

.
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Not paying taxes is a criminal offence. Yes, I would say that criminals are more likely to commit crimes than non-criminals. Dishonest people do dishonest things.
 
dereko1969 said:
Yes but what about the next time this person goes out driving? Who's to protect the rest of us, or will the next people he kills be entitled to ask the original 'victims' families why they thought he should be let off?

The driver had already been done for dangerous driving, didn't learn his lesson, caused the deaths of 8 people, was driving an NI registered car, is it legally insured? was he using a fake address for insurance?

while people might say, sure it's only VRT it's yet another sign of disrespect for the law which seems to be endemic in Donegal. what sort of a ban/fine was he given the first time?
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Your whole post is one big assumption and is a fair reflection of how stories tend to mutate when the facts aren't at hand.
 
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