Rod and Paula Bramblett Killed in Car Accident

[McLoofus 35,182]

16 minutes ago, ChltteTiger said:

only because

nuh uh

Quote

some on here have weird points of view.

uh huh

 

[homersapien 11,357]

24 minutes ago, WalkingCarpet said:

16 year olds know the difference between right and wrong and are trusted to operate motor vehicles in a responsible way like adults are. If we, as a society, didn't think 16 year olds were in total control of their actions we wouldn't give them driver's licenses after they passed written and practical tests. It's not like a 7 year old was driving and didn't understand what he was doing. I fail to see how being 16 affected his decision making vs if he were 18.

Great job of stating the status quo!

But the debate is whether or not being 16 should automatically entitle him to be tried under Alabama's "youthful offender" act.  If so, the question then becomes, should a person who is legally designated as immature have unrestricted driving privileges in the first place?

And regarding your last sentence, generally speaking, an average 18 year old will make better decisions than an average 16 year-old.  After all, they have 2 years (12.5%) more life and learning experience.

[The Freak 2,526]

54 minutes ago, WalkingCarpet said:

16 year olds know the difference between right and wrong and are trusted to operate motor vehicles in a responsible way like adults are. If we, as a society, didn't think 16 year olds were in total control of their actions we wouldn't give them driver's licenses after they passed written and practical tests. It's not like a 7 year old was driving and didn't understand what he was doing. I fail to see how being 16 affected his decision making vs if he were 18.

Most states don't give 16 year olds an unrestricted license.  There are usually curfews and occupant restrictions.  I wonder why.

[The Freak 2,526]

50 minutes ago, ChltteTiger said:

THIS IS NOT BOYS BEING BOYS!

Just because you use all caps does not make it true.

 

51 minutes ago, ChltteTiger said:

If we as a society really believe that then a 16 year old boy has NO FREAKING BUSINESS BEHIND THE WHEEL!! Let them mature a few more years.

I partially agree.  Kids are all different.  Some can handle it, some can't.  Parents should do a better job monitoring too and making the decision whether their kids should be driving.  They don't.  Life sucks.

[alexava 6,973]

I don’t get why it’s so hard to believe he fell asleep? I believe the authorities have ruled out alcohol, cell phone distraction and other drugs. Weed was in his system and we don’t know how much or how recently he used it. With my few experiences with weed I don’t think driving 90 and ramming a stopped vehicle is how anyone would explain the effects of marijuana.  The kid is at fault. Period. Even falling asleep is his fault. I don’t know exactly why someone needs to challenge the only logical explanation there is for this accident by claiming not to believe his story or that it was impossible.  Many of us know exactly how possible it is and have absolutely no reason to lie about it.

[alexava 6,973]

14 minutes ago, The Freak said:

Most states don't give 16 year olds an unrestricted license.  There are usually curfews and occupant restrictions.  I wonder why.

This is news to me!  But didn’t this accident happen about 8pm?

[The Freak 2,526]

Just now, alexava said:

This is news to me!  But didn’t this accident happen about 8pm?

6 pm i think.  Would not have helped the Brambletts.  Does Alabama have no restrictions?

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

8 minutes ago, The Freak said:

Most states don't give 16 year olds an unrestricted license.  There are usually curfews and occupant restrictions.  I wonder why.

I'm unaware of any jurisdiction that has laws preventing a 16 year old from driving alone at 6pm on a Saturday during Daylight Savings Time when it's still day out. When I first got my license I couldn't drive after 11pm unless coming or going to work. There is not some national epidemic of teenagers behind the wheel killing people. The reason teens have a higher rate of accidents is because they lack experience driving. If you increase the driving age to 18 you're still going to have a population of young drivers with a higher rate of incidence than older and more experienced drivers. The difference now is you're going to have all these brand new drivers driving around college towns instead of young drivers with a few years of experience behind the wheel. Clamoring for the laws to change is just going to punish people who are following the law like always and it's an emotional reaction to two people you cared about being killed by someone who made a series of bad choices. 

[alexava 6,973]

8 minutes ago, The Freak said:

6 pm i think.  Would not have helped the Brambletts.  Does Alabama have no restrictions?

Not that I’m aware of. My son is 14 so I’ll be learning soon .

[Auburn Kev 1,653]

11 minutes ago, The Freak said:

6 pm i think.  Would not have helped the Brambletts.  Does Alabama have no restrictions?

 

1 minute ago, alexava said:

Not that I’m aware of. My son is 14 so I’ll be learning soon .

Here is a link to Graduated Drivers License in Alabama.

None of the restrictions are applicable here

https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/teendriving/graduated-drivers-license.html

[alexava 6,973]

2 minutes ago, Auburn Kev said:

 

Here is a link to Graduated Drivers License in Alabama.

None of the restrictions are applicable here

https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/teendriving/graduated-drivers-license.html

Thanks. Good information. 

[AUght2win 6,828]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

Yes, I've done it.

How would you know if you were asleep?

[AUght2win 6,828]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

How 

You've made it clear you think drunk or buzzed driving is no big deal. Sounds like you still do it. 

[bigbird 60,457]

39 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

How would you know if you were asleep?

What else would it be?

I was awake for about 2+ days and was coming home about 3 in the morning. Stopped at a stop sign about a block from my house. Then I was woken up when the airbag punched me in the face. I rear ended a parked car less than a block away from the stop sign. Hit it so hard that the front end of my car was in the back seat of the parked car.  Cops came, ruled out all other possibilities. Was obviously found at fault for the accident but wasn't charger with anything. It was an accident.

[aubearcat 2,136]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

Not that I’m aware of. My son is 14 so I’ll be learning soon .

There is a graduated license law in Alabama that restricts the number of passengers and hours of operation. 

 

Edit: I should’ve read the rest of the responses before responding. My apologies for the duplicate answer. 

[AUght2win 6,828]

24 minutes ago, bigbird said:

What else would it be?

I was awake for about 2+ days and was coming home about 3 in the morning. Stopped at a stop sign about a block from my house. Then I was woken up when the airbag punched me in the face. I rear ended a parked car less than a block away from the stop sign. Hit it so hard that the front end of my car was in the back seat of the parked car.  Cops came, ruled out all other possibilities. Was obviously found at fault for the accident but wasn't charger with anything. It was an accident.

Right but I am asking how you knew you were doing 90.

Edit: And were you doing 90 prior to passing out or did you accelerate after passing out?

[bigbird 60,457]

39 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

Right but I am asking how you knew you were doing 90.

Edit: And were you doing 90 prior to passing out or did you accelerate after passing out?

I don't know I was doing 90. I do know that I slowly accelerated after the stop and then about 100-200 feet later I ended up in the back of a car.  I obviously accelerated very quickly after falling asleep.

The force necessary to put my car into the back seat of another had to be substantial. The mass of the car didn't change, therefore my acceleration had to have.

F=MA

[alexava 6,973]

1 hour ago, AUght2win said:

You've made it clear you think drunk or buzzed driving is no big deal. Sounds like you still do it. 

Drunk or buzzed driving is a big deal. Whether or not I do it is irrelevant to this discussion. I have driven drunk enough to know that simply being drunk or high doesn’t make you ram a stopped car at a ridiculous rate of speed. You must fall asleep or pass outto pull off such a feat. I am much more prone to falling asleep after working long odd hours than I am after having a few beers and being totally aware of the situation. That’s when I’m most focused on not making a mistake. If I drink and don’t think I can be totally awake I’ll call someone or sleep in the car. That doesn’t happen anymore. 

[AUght2win 6,828]

17 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I don't know I was doing 90. I do know that I slowly accelerated after the stop and then about 100-200 feet later I ended up in the back of a car.  I obviously accelerated very quickly after falling asleep.

The force necessary to put my car into the back seat of another had to be substantial. The mass of the car didn't change, therefore my acceleration had to have.

F=MA

I honestly do not doubt your story. And I am open to the possibility the kid was asleep. It's just 90 is so fast. SO fast. You know, was he going 75 then conked out? I don't see any possible way he was out long enough to go from 55 to 90 MPH, yet able to stay on the road. I think the kid was speeding way-over regardless. 

The sleep thing will have to have a good alibi, I think. They'll have to make a reasonable argument of why he was so tired at 6 PM. It's possible, though.

[bigbird 60,457]

10 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

 

The sleep thing will have to have a good alibi, I think. They'll have to make a reasonable argument of why he was so tired at 6 PM. It's possible, though.

all other possibilities have been ruled out. What's your theory?

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

I don't know why it's so hard to grasp that someone feeling tired, drowsy, and start to doze off while they're driving if they have their foot on the gas/accelerator that when their body relaxes and they doze off that their foot will press down more and harder on the gas/accelerator and not magically come off and or move their foot to the break. 

Even if he you have both hands on the wheel and are moved up close to the steering wheel you can still almost doze off or start to get drowsy and not have complete control of the vehicle. I've only been drowsy while driving once and it was early in the morning on my way to work. It was around 5:45am and the sun hadn't come up yet, so it was still a little dark. Thankfully I was about a quarter of a mile from a curve and was still on the straight part of the road and my right front wheel started to veer off onto the grass on the side of the road a little but thankfully I steered the wheel back on the road. After I straightened back up from veering off a little bit, that perked me up the rest of my drive to work and thankfully I haven't done it since.

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

On 7/9/2019 at 7:57 PM, AU-24 said:

Officer or NCO? Don’t mean to offend but if you are/we’re a Commissioned Army Officer, you may want to work on your grammar and writing skills.

Actually went in enlisted turned down a shot at West Point. Made E5 in two years got a direct commission at 3 years. This is a message board so I’m texting from my phone, so excuse my grammar. Actually I did a gig for the US Army as a GS 12 tech writer also developing courses for Reserve units, so I guess my English isn’t too bad. First response I got from my editor was I had to tone it down to 9th grade level 😁

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

3 hours ago, AUght2win said:

I honestly do not doubt your story. And I am open to the possibility the kid was asleep. It's just 90 is so fast. SO fast. You know, was he going 75 then conked out? I don't see any possible way he was out long enough to go from 55 to 90 MPH, yet able to stay on the road. I think the kid was speeding way-over regardless. 

The sleep thing will have to have a good alibi, I think. They'll have to make a reasonable argument of why he was so tired at 6 PM. It's possible, though.

They already said he had been out on the lake with his girlfriend and her family all night and like most guys that age, probably didn’t sleep. I’ve done a few of those at that age.

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

I really don’t understand some folks logic so let me try to explain. If I hire a guy tomorrow that has no experience at the job, I would be pretty stupid to fire him on his first day for a mistake. So translated we have to start allowing folks to drive at some age so we decide on 16. So I sure don’t expect a 16 year old with less than 1 year driving to be as smart or capable of say a 25 year old that’s been driving for 9 years. So yes, I’m not going to judge the 16 year old under the same respect as the 25 year old. Why is that so complicated. We start students in school at six so if the wet their pants the first week should we send them to reform school? I bet the same folks that make this argument are the same ones telling their boss he shouldn’t be upset when they are late on getting a job completed. SMDH

[jAUSon 2,836]

3 hours ago, bigbird said:

all other possibilities have been ruled out. What's your theory?

Do they rule out distracted driving? Or do they just dismiss it because other than a time stamp on a call/text,  it can't be proven? It's not an accusation. I've had this question on my mind for a while.