🚀 go-pugleaf

:Ryan Thompson <gt7196b@prism.gatech.edu> wrote
>On 13 Sep 1997 05:09:00 GMT, Props <props@dock.co.uk> wrote:
>[...]
:   No, but if you do die, your parents (or whoever) had better realize
:that it's YOUR FAULT and not because Ford Motor Company built a car
:capable of going too fast, or some other cop-out like that...
:   Personal responsibility is the word of the day.  The teens broke the
:law and they got killed. The man broke the law (traffic violations) and
:got punished for his actions, too. Albeit in a less dramatic way.

I agree that personal responsibility is the key issue.  The girls
repeatedly vandalized his house. They did so again after midnight on a
school night.  In order to avoid getting caught they were speeding with
lights off and running stop signs.  They drove recklessly because they
were afraid.  Not afraid of being killed, but of being caught.  All of
those many actions listed above entails a risk.  They had free will,
they made choices.  Brett Tonkin was guilty of speeding (as he admits) but
he is not responsible for their deaths.  Did he physically use his truck
to plow the car off the road?  No.  The driver, Ashleigh Best, could have
slowed down or turned their lights back on so he could get the license
plate number.  Best chose not to do so.  Tonkin and his wife obviously did
not seek to kill them, only to identify them and to report to the
authorties or their parents.  

In trying to identify the kids, he also put his own life in danger.  What
if (and this is quite a realistic possibility), instead of Ashleigh Best
crashing,  Tonkin lost control of his car killing himself and his wife?
No one seems to think about that.

I think the reason why several public opinion polls (nightly news and - 
http://www.accessatlanta.com/local/news/1997/09/12/tonkin_side.html
show overwhelming  support for Tonkin is due to the fact that he was a
respected, law-abiding member of his community.  And most of those polled
can easily imagine being him and doing the exact same thing in his
position.  For any of you who think that Tonkin has "won" his case, you
are wrong.  Besides the fact that he is personally devastated by this
tragedy, he faces at least 1 civil suit forthcoming.  It's very possible
he will lose that, on top of huge legal bills.  
 
   
-- 
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and 
making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually 
die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck 
   George Nichols  gn24@prism.gatech.edu  http://www.pobox.com/~shrine