Brun

Anybody read about the bloke who caused a crash after he claimed he sneezed at the wheel, resulting in a couple of deaths.
I'm sure plenty of people have had a sudden sneeze or two behind the wheel. Obviously if the sneeze was powerful enough it may cause such a reaction which may result in temporary loss of control of a vehicle. In most cases, you would get away with it, but in the case of this bloke, he had a head on crash.
Now whats the verdict?
As i've never done a poll - i've done one

andypugh2000

I witnessed an accident where a stobart truck went into a broken down van on the A303 3 years ago, I assisted the injured guys inside until the emergeny services arrived and i asked the driver of the artic how the hell it happened, he said i sneezed but looking at where he braked (skid marks on the hard shoulder) he had obviously dozed off into a micro sleep and suddenly awoke to the van 20 feet away and too late to do bugger all about it, the police took statement and once the artic driver realised i was going to court he admitted he dozed off.

Brun

I see what your saying
Tell you what, lets say for instance, the person who was the victim of the sneezing fit was someone you were really close to you be it a friend or family member. How would you vote then? Would you blame them?

LG John

I think its fvcking shocking that because of the 'result' of an accident the punishment is more severe. An accident is 'just' that 'An Accident' in that it is totally unintentional. If the guy can be pushised for sneezing at the wheel then so should everyone. Oh and by the way I was disgusted that the guy that causes the rail crash by falling asleep at the wheel got jail time!! My mate fell asleep at the wheel and hit a couple of traffic cones and got no more than a few scrapes on his car. What he did was NO different to the rail crash guy its just that the hands of the gods dictated that the car didn't cause such carnage after he drifted off. Mad world we live in

LG John

Oh, and what the fvck would jail time 'teach' him? Is he going to learn not to sneeze I somehow think the thought of 'what happened' will be punishment enough.

Brun

But how would you feel if someone you were close to was the victim of this accident?

CrisPDuk

Brun, surely that is precisely why a jury is theoretically composed of 12 impartial people (much harder these days with a lynch mob press, David Blunkett etc).

SaxoBoy, Surely falling asleep at the wheel comes under driving without due care & attention/dangerous driving, there for the perspective should be that your mate was extremely lucky NOT to get caught/charged?

Leslie

Maybe the point of the sentence is to warn others not to drive when they are as short of sleep as that bloke was.

Les

LG John

I would be very upset but not at all angry at the driver. How the hell could he help it if he sneezed??? I'm being entirely honest here, I would NOT be angry. No offense to the posters so far on this thread but I'm seeing the usual 'must blame' someone culture that the fecking Yanks have brought to Britain. Sometimes things just happen Why do we need to try and qualify every event in the world by paying some party loads of money and chucking some other party in jail then filling out some nice paper work to make it all look nice and neat???

Falling asleep at the wheel is slightly harder because if you drive for hours and hours without a break then you can argue that you were driving without due car and attention. Many a winter night I have driven the 25 miles home in the dark and I am not at all tired through lack of sleep yet I feel myself 'going' sometimes? Even with the windows down and tunes up I still find it a difficult drive sometimes. Do you honestly think I am driving without due care and attention at 5pm having had proper sleep and on a 25 mile journey?? It just goes to show that on boring roads you can get close to or nod off even when you haven't been driving excessively. But sneezing is just taking the absolute p!ss.

A very close friend of mines was killed in a car crash about a year ago and there was a lot of speculation over what happened including suggestions that a women pulled out in front of him causing him to swerve. I'm not angry at her, or anyone else - it was a tragedy and it happens all over the world every minute of every day. We are fragile creatures and live in a world of hard things and to make matters worse we choose to enclose oursleves in fast things (planes, trains, cars, etc). Why, when something goes wrong do we always HAVE to blame someone?

My work space around me is a total joke and I could quite possibly trip over something that 'should not' be there. If I did I'd just trundle off to the hospital to get my broken <insert> fixed and that would be that. I am responsible enough to watch where I am walking

I feel very sorry for the family of the people that died but they are NOT victims IMHO.

LG John

Perhaps you are right in this case. I don't recall the specifics but I do seem to remember evidence suggesting he had done a lot of driving with very little sleep, etc. This is driving without due care and attention. I bet if he had been getting a full 8 hours sleep for the last 7 days and was only 30 mins into his journey he'd still get a custodial sentance. Blame, blame, blame.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I see the Scoobynet Formation Lynch Mob have already cast their vote and the guy is due for summary execution.

r32

Is there any such thing as an unavoidable accident?
Also if you fire a gun at some one and miss is it just as bad as if you had hit them?
I dunno ................
But falling asleep at the wheel is unacceptable. The potential to harm others (as well as yourself) is huge, and that is avoidable. If you are going to fall asleep then you dont dictate what you do or where you end up, bus shelter full of kids?


A motor car is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, we all have a responsibility to others when driving.
Sorry for the stance ........

Sneezing though, now theres a thought .............

SiDHEaD

how can you possibly stop yourself sneezing. It's just an accident plain and simple.

Otherwise, all people with hayfever had best be banned from driving, just incase

Lack of sleep is different. However, the bloke you are refering to driving onto the traintrack, had had NO sleep the night before. He'd stayed up gassing on the interweb. Therefore yes he was to blame.

Andy

LG John

Hairy muff - bad example to use and I accept that was negligent. Sneezing or farting at the wheel is not!!!!

Sneezing will at best (when badly timed) **** up your reaction to an event by about 1s which is enough to be a problem. Every morning I drive with the cruise control on in my car and if I have to brake it will take my foot at least 1s longer to find and apply the brake pedal than if it was on the accelerated and had to just shift across. I suppose we should rip this system out every car on our roads It was an unfortunate accident and nobody is to 'blame'

Sith

I have sneezed so hard that that I have fallen over and hurt my back during the sneeze.

I hate the thought of sneezing while driving because my whole body shakes.

LG John

I get pretty violent sneezes too

Brun

Having looked at the arguments i feel i'm now able to vote in favour of letting him off
I can imagine it would be incredibly difficult not to blame the sneezing bloke if i was related to the victim, but i would hope that if i was in that situation i would show some sort of compassion the the sneeze man

Brun

Note to Webmaster: These polls are cool

SiDHEaD

I can't beleive 7 people have clicked guilty. They must have read it wrong or are having a laugh!

LG John

Perhaps they found some pepper in the car and concluded he set out on his journey with the intention to sneeze

Apparition

I don't know about anyone else , but being a hay fever sufferer, I have on occasion sneezed suddenly and violently at the wheel. a) I have NEVER EVER had to take my hands off the wheel (read the resume' of the case). and b) if I have closed my eyes as a reaction to the sneeze it has been momentarily, and I have applied the brake at the same time for safety).
There's more than meets the eye to this case.