http://www.connpost.com/ci_13807681 Surprised i don't see this more in my neighborhood.. accidents i mean.. cops race here all the time
The police were certainly doing something they weren't supposed to, but they also had the right of way at the light and the teens are at fault for the collision. I honestly don't know what the consequences should be. I think the cops should only be punished for breaking policy and/or the speeding, perhaps even wreckless driving, but not punished for killing them. Sounds a little bad, but if you're not at fault for the accident how can you be punished if they die. It'd be like punishing the parents if their kid committed suicide in their house, or the manufacturer of whatever the kid used to kill himself with.
The kids had the right-of-way, but they really should have observed that the cop wasn't going to stop. For example, I don't care what the crosswalk light says, I look and make sure cars are stopping before I go out into the street. Sad.
Are you serious Alexstarfire? You're saying it's the teen's fault that the cop was going over twice the speed limit without sirens? At that speed at night it's very hard to judge how fast a car's coming at you. Would you have said that same thing if it was some random person driving that fast that hit a cop turning? The fact that the driver of the car that crashed is still on duty is ridiculous, you'd think that he would at least be suspended given this evidence.
This is ridiculous, they have no right to be going that fast at all, It was not the teens fault, they saw a car up the road and assumed they were travelling 40 mph not 70. I think manslaughter is a perfect charge, thats what a civilian would get. I had an issue witht his one time, I was coming into the town I lived in (30 mph limit) and I was doing maybe 35 or so and all of a sudden a cop blew by me i estimate almost double my speed, lets say 60 mph. He was going so fast coming up to a light that was red and almost railed a car in the back, If there was a little more friction he probably would have had his rear wheels off the road he hit his brakes so hard. Keep in mind he did NOT have lights on. Needless to say I sped up a little to get up to him and I took down his plate # and still remember it today "1B46" nys trooper, and I reported it to his sergeant, the cop at the window when I went to report it got mad at me and claimed "they are trained drivers blah blah blah" and im like NO! he had no lights on and almost caused a serious accident. I never did hear of any outcome to it.
The Police had the right of way in that vid, the cops shouldn't have been going that speed the kids clearly went when they shouldn't have, they should have seen that gap was way too small.
I sense an argument of epic proportions on the way. Just proves we can't behave like civilized beings... Let the flaming commence.
Yes, I would have. Anyone who turns left has to yield to oncoming traffic, that is the law. If a random person hit a cop though I'm sure they'd probably be up **** creek, but I don't think it should matter if either is a cop. Laws are there to be equal to everyone, not to be less/more severe if it's a cop or any other government official driving. It might be hard to judge but there isn't much you can do to change the fact that they were supposed to yield and didn't. EDIT: Unless I'm blind I'm pretty sure the cops had a green light. Granted I only watched the video once. If it's red, then it changes a little, in which case manslaughter would be a perfectly acceptable charge.
"Anderson has been charged by State Police with two counts of second-degree manslaughter in the teens' deaths" This sounds entirely reasonable to me. It looks like the system is working in this case. Cop breaks the law and is punished like everyone else.
Yes.. you're supposed to yield to oncoming traffic if you're trying to turn left, but the point was that the kid probably never realized that the cop was coming so fast. He was probably like "oh, he's 200 meters away driving at 50 km/h" so he would've had about 14 seconds to turn, when he obviously didn't have that much time. (0,2 kilometers) / (50 km/h) = 14,4 seconds (google knows how to calculate that :O)
Since there seems to be some confusion, the cops ran through TWO "stop signs" in 5 seconds before they hit the kids. I say "'stop signs'" because a flashing red light means the same thing as a stop sign.
People are dead. The court will decide who was at fault. If was the cops, well it happens, drivers kill people no matter what job they do.
I agree. Though I can't tell, they may be flashing yellows, I think you're right in that they're flashing reds in which case the kids were expecting the cop to stop, and that's why they pulled out. I think if the kids had been paying more attention, this wouldn't have happened. That said? It's 100% the cop's legal fault.
Well, upon looking at the video again I can say that it's certainly in black and white and it's impossible to tell if those are flashing red lights or flashing orange lights. Flashing orange/yellow lights just means to be careful but you don't have to stop. If they are flashing red, then you are certainly correct, but it's impossible to tell from that video.
