News Retired NASA astronaut charged with murder in DUI crash that killed 2 young sisters

[GLS]

Retired NASA astronaut charged with murder in DUI crash that killed 2 young sisters

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/06/former_nasa_astronaut_charged.html

giants with feet of clay
:facepalm:

 

[boogabooga]

That's awful.

Seems that one can make a very bad decision, no matter how smart and accomplished they are.

 

[jedidia]

Murder? Do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of american legal terms? Here, killing somebody while DUI gets you negligent homicide. Murder implies intent, and is on a whole other level.

The fact that the kids weren't beltet in would also feature very prominantly in the examination. I'd guess the case would get you between 1 to 2 years conditional over here, and you'll likely never drive a car again, but a murder trial? wtf?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

The laws vary from sate to state. Here I think the same thing would be vehicular homicide. The DUI will be the kicker. Depends on how the district attorney wants to play it (and if he is up for reappointment/re-election or has aspirations for a higher office)

It is a sad state of affairs.

 

[Urwumpe]

Murder? Do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of american legal terms? Here, killing somebody while DUI gets you negligent homicide. Murder implies intent, and is on a whole other level.

The fact that the kids weren't beltet in would also feature very prominantly in the examination. I'd guess the case would get you between 1 to 2 years conditional over here, and you'll likely never drive a car again, but a murder trial? wtf?

Well, I can understand to rate it as murder if he was massively overspeeding, because that is often resulting in a killing spree. Same with driving intoxicated. That is not just a bit of negligence.

Both seems to apply here, he was overspeeding (Not a lot though it seems) and was intoxicated, though the extent of both is not clear. By the available news reports here, I can't really say if alcohol or overspeeding was really needed for the crash, or even just contributed to it. The reported 65 mph or 100 km/h is not really fast for a "reckless motorhead" - in Germany he would count as terribly slow. What is the speed limit on the US 82 there? I doubt it is really a big difference to 65 mph, with two physically separated lanes.

Not wearing your seat belt though is attempted suicide. Even a harmless crash will kill you then. All the drama that the mayor and other citizens of the county do there about the girls is just cynical, because they downplay the contribution of the girls and their parent to their demise. "They had been only twenty minutes away from home". Not sure what kind of car they had, but I am FAR from home in 20 minutes. And a lot of road behind me with many possible dangers. And do I understand it correctly, that they wanted to even drive from Texas to Alabama WITHOUT wearing their seatbelts at all?

 

[Fabri91]

The article mentioned that the victims' car was a 2015 Ford Fiesta, which is essentially identical to the EU market one, for reference.

 

[dman]

Throughout Alabama, U.S. 82 is paired with unsigned State Route 6. The highway crosses the state, and is known in West Alabama (Tuscaloosa and Northport) as McFarland Boulevard, in memory of the late Honorable Ward Wharton McFarland, a political, business, and civic leader who died in 1979. Currently in Pickens County, Alabama, a widening project of U.S. 82 is underway to make the highway four-laned. New bridges are being constructed using Federal Highway Administration monies, as well as matching Alabama Department of Transportation funds. Four-laning the highway in Tuscaloosa County, west of Northport to the Pickens County line, was completed in the fall of 2010.

Depending on location US 82 is mostly 4 lane - speed limit is probably 55 mph
in most areas

 

[Urwumpe]

The article mentioned that the victims' car was a 2015 Ford Fiesta, which is essentially identical to the EU market one, for reference.

Yes, also the car of the two girls was traveling at 65 mph, not the astronaut, he was claimed to be much faster. The news I first found had been wrong there.

Though I doubt that anybody did any serious measurement there. At 100 km/h, even colliding with 20 km/h difference is fatal. If the crash does not kill you, the inertia of your own car will.

Still, a lot of it makes no sense. The astronaut is accused to have started 3 hours before the accident in a motel, heavily intoxicated - that means shortly before midnight. His behavior was very erratic. Still he must have been driving without problems for 3 hours before colliding with a car.

 

[dman]

Alabama statue on homicide by vehicle


Alabama Code – Section 32-5A-192: HOMICIDE BY VEHICLE OR VESSEL
(a) Whoever shall unlawfully and unintentionally cause the death of another person while engaged in the violation of any state law or municipal ordinance applying to the operation or use of a vehicle, or vessel, as defined in Section 33-5-3, or to the regulation of traffic or boating, shall be guilty of homicide when the violation is the proximate cause of the death.

(b) Any person convicted of homicide by vehicle or vessel shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than two thousand dollars ($2,000), or shall be imprisoned for a term not less than one year nor more than five years, or may be so fined and so imprisoned. All fines collected for violation of this section relating to vessels shall be paid into the State Water Safety

Facing jail time of 1-5 years per count......

 

[Urwumpe]

It has to be said: In Alabama, it is also mandatory that minors under 15 years age wear a seat belt... funnily you don't need to wear one if you are older and sit on the backseat. Must be some kind of American humor.

 

[Fabri91]

Many people here also believe that for some magic reason wearing seatbelts is not necessary in the backseat. :dry:

 

[Urwumpe]

Many people here also believe that for some magic reason wearing seatbelts is not necessary in the backseat. :dry:

Here in some braindead circles, seatbelts are also considered something that only bad drivers need...

Some years ago, many young people died in a single car crash, right next to my house, because the father of one had bought a new car for his son and they all decided to take it for a ride, without wearing seat belts. They even closed the seatbelts before sitting on them, to avoid the warning and the warning tone. All except the inexperienced driver of the car, who was not even the owner or related to the owner, died, when the car touched a traffic island after overtaking a much slower car on the opposite lane and lost ground contact. The wreck of the car and the body parts of the passengers had been spread over 50 meters distance.

 

[Artlav]

Somewhere it's "cultural" - the concept of a seat belt simply does not exist for the back seat. Not sure what the exact reason is, but here in Russia there were no seat belts on the back seat in the soviet-made and then Russian-made cars, they only appeared when cars began to be imported. I would guess that people never changed their habits to notice the addition.

Also, i never seen or heard a seatbelt PSA that would mention the back seat, it's always the driver and the front seat passenger. Perhaps that's the key omission.

 

[dman]

It has to be said: In Alabama, it is also mandatory that minors under 15 years age wear a seat belt... funnily you don't need to wear one if you are older and sit on the backseat. Must be some kind of American humor.

Because if you belted in have trouble reaching the 6 pack you just bought......

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 PM ----------

Here in some braindead circles, seatbelts are also considered something that only bad drivers need...

Some years ago, many young people died in a single car crash, right next to my house, because the father of one had bought a new car for his son and they all decided to take it for a ride, without wearing seat belts. They even closed the seatbelts before sitting on them, to avoid the warning and the warning tone. All except the inexperienced driver of the car, who was not even the owner or related to the owner, died, when the car touched a traffic island after overtaking a much slower car on the opposite lane and lost ground contact. The wreck of the car and the body parts of the passengers had been spread over 50 meters distance.

Belong to a fire department - in my town have section of interstate highway

Seen it enough times - people thrown from car during rollover

Something to be said about lifting vehicle to remove body trapped under it......

 

[Quick_Nick]

Many people here also believe that for some magic reason wearing seatbelts is not necessary in the backseat. :dry:

In Texas, the laws bounced around a lot but have settled now on every rider being required to wear a seatbelt no matter what (and there are signs all along the highway reminding you).
If you offer people the 'freedom' to not wear a seatbelt, sadly they will take it.

 

[Andy44]

Since nobody bothers to post basic details and forces us to click links to find them, the name of the individual in question is James Donald Halsell Jr.

And since the lazy writers of the article don't bother to post basic details about the individual in question I looked this up:

According to Wikipedia he flew on 5 missions.

 

[Urwumpe]

Since nobody bothers to post basic details and forces us to click links to find them, the name of the individual in question is James Donald Halsell Jr.

And since the lazy writers of the article don't bother to post basic details about the individual in question I looked this up:

According to Wikipedia he flew on 5 missions.

Had been reported in German news like that. Still what the German news lacked had been details about where and how the accident happened. While most American media seems to focus on the bottle of wine (barbarians), the ten sleeping pills are completely ignored. The description of his behavior and his actions that night sound more like he had a terrible case of parasomnia... he was simply sleepwalking. Which is a known side effect of sleeping pill overdose.

Combining sleeping pills and alcohol is also known to be suicidal... can't really imagine an astronaut to do that accidentally.

 

[GLS]

Since nobody bothers to post basic details and forces us to click links to find them, the name of the individual in question is James Donald Halsell Jr.

And since the lazy writers of the article don't bother to post basic details about the individual in question I looked this up:

According to Wikipedia he flew on 5 missions.

I didn't post the name because he's kind of famous (for me at least) and very recognizable from the picture (the one on the left anyway...). But yeah, I could have posted the name... sorry.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

IT's very likely the charges are vehicular homicide as dman posted, and the news just heard "homicide" and went with murder since that's typically what you imagine in connection with the word "homicide." In the reverse, here in Georgia, we don't have any charge named "attempted murder," it's aggravated assault. The results are the same, the only difference is the name.

 

[C3PO]

In the reverse, here in Georgia, we don't have any charge named "attempted murder," it's aggravated assault. The results are the same, the only difference is the name.

That's a bit weird because in my mind the most important aspect of murder is intent. :blink: