15 year old mows down runner, leaves for dead, later laughs about it

Bigfoot wrote:

malmo wrote:

Which brings up the question, have any of you had a similar close calls?

Maybe. I was running far off the shoulder on a 2 lane blacktop facing traffic at about 10:00 a.m. An older pickup is about 100 feet in front of me coming toward me at about 50-55 mph. It swerved across the fog line and toward the edge of the paved portion of the road. I quickly moved onto the grassy shoulder toward a fence about 15' off the road. I see the grin on the a******s face when he slowly 'corrected' his path to get fully back on the road. Scared me a bit but I don't know if it was on purpose. His grin made me think it was. I got a partial plate and reported it to a County cop. Never heard anything about it.

when i lived and worked in savannah in college I always ran on the left side of the road because of this. at least a couple times every time I was there (I worked 4 separate 3 month co-ops in college there) people would do that and swerve at me. Once or twice it even happened twice during the run and the rest of the run I picked up a rock that I was going to throw at the next person that swerved at me, luckily for both the potential driver and myself, it never got to that. She 100% knew what she was doing, how is trying to scare and bump him a valid excuse for running someone over with a car. It's completely absurd.

malmo wrote:

Covid Cop wrote:

The reality is people are getting crazier and crazier. Covid crazy has really done a number. I now stick to 25 mph neighborhoods, sparingly used trails, and the treadmill. Also I always carry my phone with me now. I’m considering pepper spray too. America has turned into a Mad Max movie. We need to prepare accordingly.

I've been driving since 1970, that's 51 years. One thing I've noticed in the last 5-10 years is that drivers have become increasingly aggressive and dangerous. They speed, tailgate, make dangerous lane changes, don't merge peacefully. It's crazy. Since most of them are young perhaps it's the Fast and Furious effect? The net result is that the roads have never been more dangerous than now.

None of us are going to get to our destination not one second before we get there.

I'd agree with that. I've always tended to drive relatively quickly - my wife would always be telling me to slow down. I've got a reasonably quick car - a Mini Cooper - but on the 60 mile trip to Eugene (mostly only single lane in either direction), I'm nearly getting run over. It's nothing to be doing 65-70 mph in a 55 and be holding up a line.

They then also make crazy overtakes, often against double white lines, and are forced to squeeze back in.

I've driven for close to 50 years, all over Europe, in Australia and in the U.S., and I've never seen as much flat out aggressive driving, usually people well over their skill level, as the last five years or so.

I 100% agree. I am in favor of far, far, far stricter penalties for distracted (or even just bad) driving. It is not a right to drive a gigantic piece of metal at 60 MPH. Cities have put up with the demands of crappy drivers for too long, giving them free spaces to park their cars (or almost free), gigantic thoroughfares, and basically devoting months of planning time for -every new building- to answer questions of parking and traffic.

I used to commute by bike and there was one particularly bad crosswalk where drivers would routinely say "the sun was in my eyes" as an excuse for not seeing someone. No accidents AFAIK, but several close calls I saw. It's absurd that a driver would think that NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE = keep driving fast = now you have an excuse if you kill someone. It can't wrap my head around it.

I was merely pushing back on the people saying "this generation are particularly bad drivers, because politics" or something. I didn't get the whole argument completely, I'll admit.

The roads have gotten considerably safer for drivers and marginally less safe for pedestrians. There is MUCH more we can and should be doing, especially in urban areas.

bleu wrote:

She’s not even being charged as an adult! Pathetic!

Sadly, sometimes the prosecution doesn't have that option. Remember these teenage girls from a few months ago?

SocioPandemic wrote:

MelRnr wrote:

So horrible and sad.

I simply can't comprehend how someone can have such disregard for another's life.

Unfortunately, we are living in a world where high-profile people gleefully cheer on the death of someone with opposing political or religious opinions, which in turn inspires others to do the same. It happens on this website all the time. If you are 15, you have come of age in this environment. Unless your parents are drilling the sanctity of life into you every day, you likely share the opinions of the masses online. We live in sad times. We are back to publicly cheering the gallows. We have become what we never thought was possible, all in the span of ~10 years.

I blame the girl, but I also blame society.

R.I.P. to this runner and his family.

Agree.

Also note that this has no political statement but many others have tried to blame a political ideology when the article gave no indication of any political leaning of any person or entity involved. When people do this, they are justifying violence in the name of their ideology. That is a dangerous place to go as an individual and more so as a society.

runningjogger wrote:

Reverse things and the FBI would be all over this "hate crime".

Sadly, you are likely correct. We now have a Reverse Jim Crow society.

fisky wrote:

I remember that accident. I also did a google street analysis of it at the time. You are correct in everything you said. It was even a low-traffic road, ending at the facility just a half-mile or so down the road. It was as "safe" a road route as you would find near Chattanooga.

What was the deal in that case? I've been googling. Sounds to me like she must have been drunk. Shame on the cop for not giving her a sobriety test or BAC.

Hurdles400m wrote:

Posters may or may not remember Steve Heidenriech, a standout middle distance South Dakota high school and University of Indiana track runner, who was struck by a hit and run driver back in 1976 and spent 14 days in a coma right before the 1976 Olympics:

https://people.com/archive/a-hit-and-run-victim-14-days-in-a-coma-steve-heidenreich-knows-the-thrill-of-competing-again-vol-8-no-9/

This involved an interesting court case that went to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1978:

https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/supreme-court/1978/1078s221-2.html#:~:text=This%20case%20presents%20a%20rather%20unusual%20set%20of,running%20on%20a%20county%20road%20near%20Bloomington%2C%20Indiana

.

So I read the case and thought they had to reveal the women's name.

But then I read an article about him giving motivational speeches and it says they never found out who hit him? What am i getting wrong? Who was the girlfriend? Do you know?

rojo wrote:

fisky wrote:

I remember that accident. I also did a google street analysis of it at the time. You are correct in everything you said. It was even a low-traffic road, ending at the facility just a half-mile or so down the road. It was as "safe" a road route as you would find near Chattanooga.

What was the deal in that case? I've been googling. Sounds to me like she must have been drunk. Shame on the cop for not giving her a sobriety test or BAC.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2017/2/1/340993/Judge-Delays-Ruling-In-Cameron-Bean.aspxhttps://www.wrcbtv.com/story/31033166/update-cameron-bean-sentencing-hearing-on-wednesday

IIRC, Cameron was running on the left side of the road about a half-mile as he approached the dead-end at the medical facility. The woman crossed the middle line and struck him and continued on. She was not arrested or questioned immediately. I don't know how much time transpired. I think it might have been the next day, but when she was questioned, she claimed that the sun's glare prevented her from seeing and she thought she had hit a deer and continued on.

The road at that spot was straight and flat. Due to the direction of the road and time of day and the position of the sun relative to the road, there would have been no glare from the sun. I think the speed limit at that point was only 35mph, but I'm not sure. There was a speed limit sign on the side of the road that I saw in Google street view near the incident, but I don't remember for sure what it was.

I think a forensic analysis of the data would conclude that the driver was either distracted or drunk. Since she was on the way to work, it's unlikely that she was drunk. That's about all I remember.

Women who listen to certain media narratives these days are often brought up to believe that a man’s life is only worth what financial value he can provide, these days

I stopped running on roads and even sidewalks many years ago after watching a drunk driver crash into a tree about 50 feet away. I only run on trails or bike paths that are well away from any road. I would much rather take my chances with an occasional rattlesnake than a car.

Flagpole wrote:

Good freakin' grief. This girl should never see the light of day again.

They won’t spend a day in actual jail. Hopefully someone returns the favor to her when she’s out of juvi

This is more of a general comment, but a society organized around driving is going to be inherently dangerous to non-drivers. In the US, drivers think the world revolves around them and often do not consider the possibility that cyclists and pedestrians even exist. I've been cycling more recently while I rehab an Achilles injury, and on every single ride I go on, I see drivers roll through stop signs without looking both ways, turn without signaling, and speed 10+ mph on residential streets that children play on as a matter of course. They also act aggressively in a knowing manner because they know they can get away with it. Countries that have lower levels of traffic fatalities prioritize walking, cycling, and public transit, and make driving the exception. The US's traffic fatalities per capita are 5x worse than Norway and Sweden and 4x worse than the UK, probably our closest peer country. Part of the solution involves making driving harder and walking and cycling much easier. Cyclists and runners pay the taxes that fund roads; we should not be excluded from using them.

New record wrote:

Trying to scare a runner with a car? What is wrong with people? Where can 14 and 15 year old kids drive around together? Washington apparently? Be careful out there people...

Makes you wonder how this kid managed to grow up with such little regard for human life. Maybe she is actually clinically psychopathic. If so, parents and community can do only so much.

I sometimes joke with the person on the passenger seat when someone’s slowly crossing the road that I don’t like that person’s shirt, so let’s just bump them off, which is silly funny precisely because the act is so unthinkable, but this news just ruined that joke for me now.

I used to run at the edge of the road instead of the pavement because roads in my area are usually flatter and smoother than the concrete slabbed pavement, but have always felt very nervous doing that, so I now either run on bike trails or dirt roads without motor traffic or if I run on the road, I face opposing traffic so I can at least jump on to the pavement if I see a driver not moving to the center of the road .

My city also has bike lanes at many places with pole dividers to prevent cars from sneaking into them, so they work well for running too. But many bike lanes are still unbarriered. My city thankfully is a crowded east coast college city where traffic speeds are low and people are not chest thumping lunatics showing off their motor power.

Agree, in some ways I think being a biker is far more dangerous. I stay as far to the outside on a shoulder as I can. I actually felt a lot safer in traffic as a runner.

Covid Cop wrote:

The reality is you have to be an incredibly defensive driver to survive. And being a pedestrian walker, biker, runner is a death wish now.

This girl obviously didn't have a competent father figure. The problem is, her mother was attracted to losers and she will be too. The daughter will be a single mom who is attracted to loser men. We are naturally attracted to men/women who have similar traits as our biological parents. The cycle continues. Really unfortunate and reprehensible act. RIP to the victim. The world ain't fair, unfortunately.

ClaytonHammer wrote:

Parenting101 wrote:

You think this child began making poor decision's accidentally? The father should be arrested a long with the child, There should be a law that the parents of a child convicted of a crime should SHARE the sentence. Maybe that will force people to properly parent their kids.

This is the only way IMO.

When I was 15 I would never even think of something like this because my dad would've beat the shyte out of me for even getting in his car.

The reality is that the fear of said beating is not enough to sway the more defiant driving age kids. If you aren't aware of many instances such as this with kids sneaking out at night and including hopping into mom or dads car, you've probably led a pretty sheltered life or were oblivious to it occurring.

Truth is that there is a substantial grouping of teens and young adults who, once they are mobile, can be tough to corral for anyone including parents.