Courtesy of BlameBush.com (A satirical website)
Chalk up another 10 innocent lives to the red state's vehicle of choice, the deadly SUV. This time, the bloody tiretracks pass through California (a blue state, of course). An SUV parked on some railroad tracks forced a train to derail, killing 10 Kerry supporters on their way to counseling. As usual, the driver of the SUV survived without a scratch. The news says he was "deranged", so five will get you ten there was a "Bush/Cheney" sticker and a "Support Our Troops" ribbon on the SUV's back.
Needless to say, this tragedy never would have happened if there was a more fuel-efficient car on those tracks. While hitchhiking through Tahoe a couple years ago, I watched in horror as an Explorer ran a stop sign and t-boned a Mini-Cooper. The Cooper launched about 30 feet into the air, bounced off a couple of pine trees, rolled down an embankment, and was carried off by squirrels. All 100 clowns inside perished. Meanwhile, the driver of the SUV stood up on the road, laughing his ass off.
Such is the case in any accident in which an SUV is involved. The car is transformed into a mangled mass of smoldering metal, while the SUV that caused the wreck remains virtually unscathed. Is that fair? How many more limbs does Max Cleland have to lose before we ban these expensive death machines from the highway? It's high time we level the playing field so that wealthy, white collar suburbanites and working class families die horrible, screaming deaths in equitable numbers.
Actually an SUV did kill 11 in California!!!! Whoa that's a weird coincidence!!!
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050127/D87SGII00.html
Murder Charges for Suspect in Train Crash
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Jan 27, 10:31 AM (ET)
By ROBERT JABLON
(AP) In this photo released by the Glendale Police Department, suspect Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, of...
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GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) - The suicidal man who authorities say caused the chain-reaction train derailment that killed 11 people has been charged with multiple counts of murder and could face the death penalty, the district attorney said Thursday.
Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, left his sport utility vehicle on a railroad track Wednesday after changing his mind about committing suicide, authorities said. He was held without bail at a hospital's jail ward after apparently slitting his own wrists and stabbing himself in the chest.
In addition to the 11 dead, a woman remained missing and nearly 200 people were injured.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said prosecutors filed charges late Wednesday for 10 counts of murder with "special cir stances" of committing murder through a train derailment. Cooley stressed however that the case were still being evaulated. Under state law, special cir stances allegations could make a defendant eligible for the death penalty.
(AP) Emergency workers use a crane to remove debris around a train derailment, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005,...
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Cooley said the complaint would be amended to add another count to refer to the 11th victim, found in the wreckage late Wednesday night. And he said the defendant's suicidal intent didn't make any difference to him.
"He's not going to engage my sympathy because he was despondent. His despondency doesn't move me," the district attorney told The Associated Press.
Arraignment was planned for Thursday afternoon but could be delayed depending on Alvarez's medical condition.
Alvarez, 25, got out of his green Jeep Cherokee before the two commuter trains crashed Wednesday morning in this Los Angeles suburb. He stood by as the gruesome chain-reaction wreck scattered wreckage and bodies over a quarter-mile of track.
The SUV was stuck between tracks away from a crossing and once there, he could not have moved it even if he had tried, Metrolink CEO David Solow said. The southbound train that struck it bolted skyward, hit a parked Union Pacific railcar, then clipped the northbound train.
(AP) An unidentified passenger (not shown) who was injured in a train derailment Wednesday, Jan. 26,...
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Sheriff Lee Baca said Thursday on CBS'"The Early Show" that "he was rather astounded himself as to what the outcome was" when the train hit the vehicle.
The crash was the worst U.S. rail tragedy since March 15, 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.
"I hope that we're able to assess this in a way that we can figure out: Is there a way that we can stop one crazed individual from creating this kind of carnage?" Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn told reporters.
Among the two women and nine men killed was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy on his way to work. About two dozen people were hospitalized in critical condition.
Glendale Fire Chief Christopher Gray said early Thursday that authorities were still actively looking for a 12th person who remained missing.
(AP) Officials from left: Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams, Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal...
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Alvarez's estranged wife, Carmelita Alvarez, had ordered him out of her home months ago, her family said, and in December she obtained a temporary restraining order keeping him away from her, their 3-year-old son and other family members.
"He is using drugs and has been in and out of rehab twice," she said in asking for the restraining order. "He threatened to take our kid away and to hurt my family members." She said he was "planning on selling his vehicle to buy a gun and threatened to use it."
Carmelita Alvarez, who lives in a converted garage behind her sister's home in suburban Compton, also told the court her husband had threatened to seek revenge on people he suspected of introducing her to another man. She said his drug use was triggering hallucinations.
She went into seclusion shortly after the crash.
"Whether we make any comment right now depends on my sister," her brother, Ruben Ochoa, told The Associated Press outside the family home on Wednesday. "We're not commenting right now."
(AP) Los Angeles County Sheriff officer Robert Delgadillo releases the photo of suspect Juan Manuel...
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The crash victims included several public employees, including Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy James Tutino, 47, whose flag-draped body was saluted by law enforcement officers and firefighters as it was carried from the wreckage.
The force of the collision, which happened about 6 a.m., hurled passengers down the trains' aisles.
"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half, it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."
First on the scene were workers at a Costco store next to the tracks, who helped remove some of the injured in shopping carts. Uninjured passengers also joined the rescue effort.
Costco employee Hugo Moran said an elderly man, covered in blood and soot and with apparently broken arms and legs, was pulled out of the wreckage but died soon after. Before he died, he thanked his rescuers and asked them to pray for him.
Another trapped man had used his own blood to write a note on a seat bottom. Using the heart symbol, he wrote "I love my kids" and "I love Leslie."
The man's iden y wasn't known, but Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Capt. Rex Vilaubi said he was removed from the wreckage alive.
So, they want to charge him with murder but they won't let him commit suicide.
I guess they'll be going for the death penalty.
You know, the more I think about this, the dumber it is. The man was obviously not in a frame of mind to commit murder. He was negligent, but wtf is the state going to accomplish by doing this?
Achieve righteous justice?
Pacify the people's thirst for vengeance.
He was going to kill himself and then decided against it at the last moment. He was in a frame of mind that allowed him to make a choice between his living and his dying. Isn't that sane?
I don't think that's what he's saying... I think what he means is why are they charging him with murder for what was clearly an accident? He wasn't trying to kill anybody.
I think it's a bit of a harsh punishment for stupidity. If I've heard correctly, Alvarez was frantically running around the wreckage apologizing and trying to help. Certainly doesn't excuse his negligance or free him from responsibility, but I think "murder" is a pretty harsh charge.
Well, he did show total disregard for others safety while trying to kill himself and then thought better of it. Couldn't he just cap himself in the head? That way no one else would have suffered except for his family. There are all kinds of ways to kill yourself without endangering others. It would be like a pilot driving his plane into the ground. At the last minute, he changes his mind and bails out. What about the passengers?
I'm not arguing the stupidity and carelessness of it all... But who knows whether or not he knew his car would actually derail the train?
Well, thats kinda like the "unloaded gun".
You could make a much better case for manslaughter way before murder where the death penalty is considered.
Whatever, it's an ass backward decision, but I'm not going to argue the justification because it's very subject.
If he shot himself and the bullet killed someone else and he lived, what type of crime is that? If you are covicted of multiple counts of manslaughter should the death penalty not be an option?
I bet the guy walks...
1) He's charged with murder and, at best, his actions were criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, or reckless endangerment;
2) The train company failed to mitigate the disaster by continuing an unsafe practice of pushing trains instead of pulling them. Chances are if the trains had been pulled by the engines no derailment would have occurred (the idiot who chickened out at suicide could not have forseen such a hazard and, as has been already reported, is completely baffled, distraught, and greiving over what his action caused. This is probably what will save his bacon because he can reasonably claim that he thought the train would merely push the SUV off the track.);
3) The train company pays millions in settlements for their reckless behavior because do ent will surface showing unions have been warning them for years to quit pushing trains; and
4) The guy is convicted of some misdemeanor and melts into obscurity -- provided, of course, he doesn't off himself in jail.
But, see what his own wife (albeit estranged) says about his "frame of mind"? He's an addict. He's been in and out of drug rehab. Now, will that hurt him or help him in court?
I go out totally wasted and drive home. I lose control and hit a bus filled with 40 people. They all die, I live. What crime did I commit and what should my punishment be?
It depends on whether or not you believe it's common knowledge that an automobile can derail a passenger train.
Even in your scenario, I wouldn't charge you with murder. But you would serve the maximum possible penalty for DWI and manslaughter.
tie him to the tracks. justice is served.
I won't pretend to be an expert in criminal justice. I couldn't really tell you what the law says cons utes mruder/manslaughter/reckless endangerment/etc. But in my opinion, you should not be charged for the consequences of an illegal action... you should be charged for the illegal action itself.
Should this person spend any more time in prison than someone who (hypothetically) does the same exact thing but does not cause the train to detrail? I don't think so. Nor do I necessarily think someone who drives with a 1.5 blood alcohol level without consequence should get any more leniency than someone who drives with a 1.5 BAL and kills a family of five.
So Spurm, what would you say to life in prison for any of these cases?
I don't know the specifics but I believe that a drunk driver that kills a family is subject to harsher punishment, involuntary manslaughter or something. Is this an additional charge, on top of the DWI charge levied in both cases?
If it's a first-time conviction, I would say no. Second time, most definitely.So Spurm, what would you say to life in prison for any of these cases?
Yeah, and to be honest, I've never been a fan of the "Involuntary Manslaughter" charge. I think it would make more sense to make the punishments stiffer for negligent actions that carry a high risk of bad consequences. I don't think someone who has done something illegal and reckless should get off light just because they were fortunate enough to not kill anybody.I don't know the specifics but I believe that a drunk driver that kills a family is subject to harsher punishment, involuntary manslaughter or something. Is this an additional charge, on top of the DWI charge levied in both cases?
What about the cop death penalty. If a cop dies while trying to apprehend a criminal, the criminal is charged with killing the cop.
So Spurm, you're saying life in prison should only be an option if someone drives drunk and kills people on two seperate occasions?
The guy who parked his truck there doesn't deserve to be charged with murder because "he didn't know his actions would kill those people in the train"? So if I didn't know my actions could be the cause of someone's death, then I don't have to face any harsh punishment? I can go and take a pistol and shoot it randomly in the air and since I don't think it will kill anyone I would only get a slap on the wrist if it would?
Sorry for the babbling!
Harsh, sure, but not Murder harsh.So if I didn't know my actions could be the cause of someone's death, then I don't have to face any harsh punishment?
The criminal should be charged with his crime, compounded by whatever crimes caused the cop to die... speeding on the wrong side of the highway, for instance.What about the cop death penalty. If a cop dies while trying to apprehend a criminal, the criminal is charged with killing the cop.
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