Rod and Paula Bramblett Killed in Car Accident

[alexava 6,973]

10 minutes ago, kevon67 said:

I realize pot effects people differently.........I drove home from a party high when I was 17.............about 4 miles one way..........I drove about 5 miles under the limit for fear someone would think I was high if I drove too fast..........I was so nervous speeding was last thing on my mind.........like Alexeva mentioned made me tired , nervous and hungry......also give my beer a nasty taste...........at 16 I dont imagine he's been smoking long if not his first time........Ive heard it gives some people schitzophrenic type symptoms.

After a few beers I drive my absolute best. 

[AU64 10,122]

43 minutes ago, alexava said:

Probably can’t even prove he was driving that fast. 

I take it you did not study engineering....check out Newton's laws of motion. Pretty easily calculated by any second year engineering student.   But likely the car has a computer that has all the operating information in it anyway.  JMO but the question of speeding and hitting someone from the rear are probably the least contestable issues.  

 

[TigerStripe 36]

10 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I take it you did not study engineering....check out Newton's laws of motion. Pretty easily calculated by any second year engineering student.   But likely the car has a computer that has all the operating information in it anyway.  JMO but the question of speeding and hitting someone from the rear are probably the least contestable issues.  

 

Agreed, but the post you quoted could have been a pot shot directed at me too. Unclear what the intent was.

[AU64 10,122]

7 minutes ago, TigerStripe said:

Agreed, but the post you quoted could have been a pot shot directed at me too. Unclear what the intent was.

answering a suggestion by someone that the speed issue was in doubt.  check where I made my comment and who I was replying to. Don't recall your comment and was not addressing it....sorry if that was a problem...   Wasn't a pot shot...just a clear statement that calculating stuff like that is pretty easy and nobody would get anywhere with a defense that the driver was not speeding excessively..   I was a  poor engineering student but still recall stuff like that.

As for the driver.....I feel bad for his family who probably did their best to teach him the right way....but not very sorry for the driver.....Bramletts were at the wrong place at the wrong time....but driving like that....he could have killed another student or some child just as easily.  Kinda hard for me to accept that maybe he learned his lesson and courts should go easy.   I'd make poor juror in a case like that.      I was called for a case where a guy was being tried for driving 100mph in a 65 zone and was drunk too.    Good for him that I was dismissed for cause. 

[alexava 6,973]

I took no pot shots at anyone. I don’t know how well “estimated speed “ will hold up in court. I don’t have a side or agenda. I also don’t know how much either side is willing to spend on time and $ presenting and challenging expert engineers. Because it all comes down to 12 people and what they can be convinced of or what they decided before they were chosen.  

leave any and all political references out of all discussions unless in the politics forum

[Auburn Kev 1,653]

Quote

Paula and Rod Bramblett’s deaths are tragic but not a crime, lawyer says

Updated Jul 3, 8:57 PM; Posted Jul 3, 8:08 PM

By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

 

The crash that killed Auburn announcer Rod Bramblett and his wife, Paula, was a tragedy, but it was not a crime, according to the suspect’s attorney.

Police this week announced that 16-year-old Johnston Edward Taylor, a Lee Scott Academy high school student, was charged with two counts of manslaughter in the May 25 deaths.

According to authorities, Taylor was driving between 89 and 91 mph when he slammed into the back of the couple’s SUV.

Charging documents also state that the Toxicological Analysis Report of Taylor’s blood sample from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences “indicated that Taylor’s blood sample contained THC, which is the primary psychoactive component of marijuana, and is indicative of recent usage of marijuana at the time of the collision.”

Birmingham attorney Tommy Spina has been retained to represent Taylor and spoke with AL.com on Wednesday evening.

“First and foremost, there are no words that I could say, on behalf of my client and his family that would adequately express the remorse and contrition that this child and his family feel for the loss caused to the Bramblett family as a result of this tragic accident,’’ Spina said. “We trust that in time there can be healing for parties directly affected by this terrible tragedy.”

Rod Bramblett wreck warrant: Teen was driving 30 mph over speed limit

Johnston Edward Taylor’s "blood sample contained THC, which is the primary psychoactive component of marijuana, and is indicative of recent usage of marijuana at the time of the collision,” records state.

The deadly crash happened on Shug Jordan Parkway at the intersection of West Samford Avenue. Taylor was traveling southbound in the outside lane on Shug Jordan Parkway approaching West Samford Avenue in his Jeep Laredo.

The Brambletts, in a 2017 Toyota Highlander, were stopped in the southbound outside lane of Shug Jordan parkway at a traffic light. The Jeep struck the Bramblett’s SUV to the right of center, according to the crash report. The impact caused the Jeep to hit a pedestrian crossing signal and a traffic light before coming to a final rest.

The Bramblett’s vehicle was pushed into the intersection and through the opposing lanes of traffic before coming to a final rest on the curb.

The affidavit in the case released Tuesday states the report from ALEA’s Traffic Homicide Unit data states that Taylor’s Jeep Laredo was accelerating from a speed of 89 mph to 91 mph in a 55-mph zone when the crash happened. There was no braking, according to the report.

Taylor was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Paula Bramblett, 53, was airlifted from the scene but had to be diverted to East Alabama Medical Center due to the severity of her injuries. She was pronounced dead in the emergency room from multiple internal injuries.

Rod Bramblett, 52 and the driver of the Highlander, was airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where he later died from a closed head injury.

Taylor told authorities he fell asleep at the wheel and did not remember what happened, according to the police report in the case. Auburn police previously ruled out the use of a phone as a contributing factor in the cause of the crash and previously said alcohol was not a factor.

“Johnston had been without sleep for a period of time leading up to the day of the accident. He spent the entire day on Lake Martin with his girlfriend’s family,’’ Spina said. “He did not drink at the lake and he did not partake of marijuana while at the lake. This is undisputed.”

Spina said experts say that marijuana can stay in someone’s system for as long as 30 days or more. “Johnston was not impaired at the time of the accident,’’ Spina said. “As my client has said consistently since his hospitalization, when questioned by law enforcement, and again after his arrest, without a parent present, he simply fell asleep at the wheel.”

 

[SCTiger2011 1,277]

8 hours ago, ToraGirl said:

The speed alone.  I spent last night trying to make sense of the difference between all of the legal charges and terms out there, differing from state to state, differing for the ages involved, differing no doubt from which lawyer represents.  It is so very sad, all around.  There are so many side issues floating that distract from the central concern.  I have realized over the last few days, upon the release of the information and my research, that I know more than I wish I did.  Please, please join me in prayer for BOTH families.  This is a genuine AUBURN, city itself, bombshell.  These are people I grew up with.  My heart keeps traveling to JET.  My heart, to the Bramblett children. My heart to all of us, trying to make sense, waffling between the clinical, our own experiences, and the emotional.  It is my greatest prayer that even though we wade through the devastation now, so much good, so much communication, so much empathy, so much justice, so much wise precedent from this point forward, and so much forgiveness flow here that we don't have the words to describe it.  There's only one way out of this, and it is through.  

Love you, AUFamily.  Take today to pass that forward to those closest to you.

Me too. All since the beginning I've received my info from a "source of a source" so I've been wary of any information I get, but most of it has been correct.  The people within the city of Auburn all seem to hold strong opinions on this, and regardless of the outcome the two obvious battle cries from the sides are ready to go.  It's either going to be "his connections to important people in Auburn played a part" or "he's being made an unfair example of because of the high profile nature of the case."

I am trying to opt for a more nuanced view than the extremely polarizing ones, but in honestly my meter for grace isn't as high as my belief system probably expects of me.  This has been a weird summer in Auburn since these two tragedies in the late spring, and I'm ready for fall semester to give the city its breath back again.

[3rdgeneration 6,469]

I have been close to a similar situation before.  A young man was driving with his 3 friends, got distracted fiddling with his radio, ran off the edge of the road, over-corrected, flipped his car, and killed 2 of his friends. One family chose bitterness and went after him with all the legal power they could.  Another family chose forgiveness and grace.  Because of the 2nd family, the boy found a way to forgive himself and is now very active in church and is changing lives of other young people. Forgiveness and grace did not mean that he had no consequences. There were fines and many, many service hours , as well as restrictions on driving for a very long time. 

My whole point with this is that you can have forgiveness and grace and still have consequences, too.  Maybe the young man needs to have some jail time, or maybe he needs to have something lighter.  That’s not for me to decide, thank God.  I just feel that having a spirit of forgiveness will help in the healing of the community.  Forgiveness AND consequences. One without the other won’t be healing. 

[alexava 6,973]

I don’t know this kid from Adam. But I can’t get behind  just throwing him to the wolves because he smoked weed sometime in the past 90 days. Every bit of evidence points to him being asleep. Excessive speed is estimated and probably accurate but I don’t think it’s 100% provable. The same authorities also said he never attempted to check up. No brakes, no swerve, no gearing down just plowed into the stopped vehicle. I’ve have been high a few times in my life. I have been drunk thousands of times. Never ever could I possibly have rammed a sitting car wide open if I wasn’t asleep. ( or scrolling Facebook) authorities also eliminated the possibility of him using his phone. I think Spina nailed it. Charges will be reduced to reckless driving and plead down very soon. Kid with have to live with this forever and probably have to relocate. 

[aubiefifty 16,718]

12 hours ago, TigerStripe said:

Agreed, but the post you quoted could have been a pot shot directed at me too. Unclear what the intent was.

i will stand for 64. i have gotten cross eyed with him and others on the political boards and he still speaks. and he is genuine. and let me say i can be absolutely ruthless when it comes to fussin and cussin politics so when i say he rises above it sometimes he has to do an awful lot of rising.

[aubiefifty 16,718]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

I don’t know this kid from Adam. But I can’t get behind  just throwing him to the wolves because he smoked weed sometime in the past 90 days. Every bit of evidence points to him being asleep. Excessive speed is estimated and probably accurate but I don’t think it’s 100% provable. The same authorities also said he never attempted to check up. No brakes, no swerve, no gearing down just plowed into the stopped vehicle. I’ve have been high a few times in my life. I have been drunk thousands of times. Never ever could I possibly have rammed a sitting car wide open if I wasn’t asleep. ( or scrolling Facebook) authorities also eliminated the possibility of him using his phone. I think Spina nailed it. Charges will be reduced to reckless driving and plead down very soon. Kid with have to live with this forever and probably have to relocate. 

you are a bad boy....................lol

[aubiefifty 16,718]

7 hours ago, 3rdgeneration said:

I have been close to a similar situation before.  A young man was driving with his 3 friends, got distracted fiddling with his radio, ran off the edge of the road, over-corrected, flipped his car, and killed 2 of his friends. One family chose bitterness and went after him with all the legal power they could.  Another family chose forgiveness and grace.  Because of the 2nd family, the boy found a way to forgive himself and is now very active in church and is changing lives of other young people. Forgiveness and grace did not mean that he had no consequences. There were fines and many, many service hours , as well as restrictions on driving for a very long time. 

My whole point with this is that you can have forgiveness and grace and still have consequences, too.  Maybe the young man needs to have some jail time, or maybe he needs to have something lighter.  That’s not for me to decide, thank God.  I just feel that having a spirit of forgiveness will help in the healing of the community.  Forgiveness AND consequences. One without the other won’t be healing. 

i wish there was more grace anymore. i know i could sure use a ton of it at times............

[alexava 6,973]

12 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

you are a bad boy....................lol

How so

[aubiefifty 16,718]

2 minutes ago, alexava said:

How so

just a joke.......

[Mikey 16,550]

I'm not an engineer, but....Channel 12 TV last night said there is some sort of "black box" in the kid's car and he was traveling between 89 and 91 MPH. That's pretty specific.

You don't go to sleep at the wheel doing 90 so the THC in his system was probably a factor. Impaired driving or whatnot, his driving errors killed two people. I won't be on the jury, but if I were he'd get some hard time and more than just six months or a year.

[bigbird 60,368]

8 minutes ago, Mikey said:

You don't go to sleep at the wheel doing 90...

That's so dumb. 

[Mikey 16,550]

1 minute ago, bigbird said:

That's so dumb. 

C'mon, you should make an effort to do better than that. If you're not interested in personal improvement, then give us a gif. They don't require original thought, thus gifs are something you are very experienced with.

[Mike4AU 1,739]

For those who don't think the speed can be accurately determined, cars have had "black boxes" for a long time and are used to determine data in accidents (among other things}.

In the case of the Jeep, the black box is silver:

It's not black, but silver. It's called an EDR--event data recorder. Practically all US vehicles come with them now. Usually under passenger seat or on the tranny hump. They control the air bag deployment. As a matter of their design, they can remember five to 20 seconds of vehicle parameters. These can include engine RPM, speed over ground, seat belt buckled or not, brakes applied or not. Great tool for collision reconstruction.

 

[SaltyTiger 7,764]

11 hours ago, alexava said:

Because it all comes down to 12 people and what they can be convinced of or what they decided before they were chosen.  

Doubt you would be able to find twelve in Lee County that have not already decided. 

[auburn4ever 1,266]

That 16 year old kid just found out he's in a lot more then first thought. He was going 91 mph and they somehow found he had marijuana in his system.

[Quietmaninthecorner 1,945]

Still way too many unknowns and reasonable doubts. 

Why were the Brambletts stopped? ... is it not a right turn with a yield?     Could the Brambletts have, almost,  missed the right turn,  and swerved from the straight lane into the turn lane at the last second right in front of the speeding teen driver?   Could the teen have tried to do this on purpose?  Is it possible the THC did not have any effect on the situation?     Without witnesses the whole thing will be a mess in court.       

[WDE_OxPx_2010 5,287]

26 minutes ago, Quietmaninthecorner said:

Still way too many unknowns and reasonable doubts. 

Why were the Brambletts stopped? ... is it not a right turn with a yield?     Could the Brambletts have, almost,  missed the right turn,  and swerved from the straight lane into the turn lane at the last second right in front of the speeding teen driver?   Could the teen have tried to do this on purpose?  Is it possible the THC did not have any effect on the situation?     Without witnesses the whole thing will be a mess in court.       

They were stopped at a light in the main two lanes of travel. If they were turning right their car would have projected in the opposite direction.

Physics answer many of these sorts of questions.

[I_M4_AU 7,773]

17 hours ago, AU64 said:

BUT...if a 16 year old can't be trusted to make adult quality decisions then he or she should not be allowed to have a driving license. 

So, who would make that decision as to if the child can make adult decisions while driving and exactly how would they accomplish this?  I can appreciate your thoughts on this, but driving has become a rite of passage to adult hood.  The only ones that can have influence over getting a license are the parents.  They are the ones that know the child’s maturity, the officer issuing the license only looks at the technical standards to pass the test.  The issuing of the license is just a license to learn about driving, it has never been an indication of how good a driver you are.  JMO.

Be careful out there. I remember going to work one day, about the time the High Schoolers were going to school, in stop and go traffic.  I looked in my rear view and the young lady driving behind me is putting on her makeup.  I pulled over and let her by, I wonder where she picked up that habit?  Experience is the best teacher and hopefully you live long enough to learn.

[I_M4_AU 7,773]

32 minutes ago, Quietmaninthecorner said:

Still way too many unknowns and reasonable doubts. 

Why were the Brambletts stopped? ... is it not a right turn with a yield?     Could the Brambletts have, almost,  missed the right turn,  and swerved from the straight lane into the turn lane at the last second right in front of the speeding teen driver?   Could the teen have tried to do this on purpose?  Is it possible the THC did not have any effect on the situation?     Without witnesses the whole thing will be a mess in court.       

What is known is that the Brambletts were hit from behind at an excessive speed.  Anytime you hit somebody from behind, it is your fault.  Add to that the +30 over and there is no reasonable doubt. All the rest is the defense lawyer trying to do his job.

[WarTiger 3,896]

37 minutes ago, Quietmaninthecorner said:

Still way too many unknowns and reasonable doubts. 

Why were the Brambletts stopped? ... is it not a right turn with a yield?     Could the Brambletts have, almost,  missed the right turn,  and swerved from the straight lane into the turn lane at the last second right in front of the speeding teen driver?   Could the teen have tried to do this on purpose?  Is it possible the THC did not have any effect on the situation?     Without witnesses the whole thing will be a mess in court.       

According to the diagram linked/posted earlier in this thread, there were in basically what amounts to the center lane (at the intersection since there's a 3rd outside lane that turns right), not in the turn lane.  They were going straight and thus were waiting for the light to change based on the diagram posted.

https://www.wrbl.com/news/teen-driver-charged-as-adult-in-bramblett-crash-police-allege-marijuana-use-and-excessive-speed/