A four-year-old girl died when her father's sat-nav wrongly told him to turn right at a junction leading him to steer their Astra car into the path of a two-ton Audi A5 , an inquest heard.A totally avoidable tragedy, which the parents are – understandably – now seeking to blame on anything except their own foolhardy actions.
Which, considering how lightly they’ve got off, makes pretty repulsive reading:
Although there was clear evidence Mr Bardhaj, 30, had committed a criminal offence, prosecutors decided it would not be in the public interest to prosecute, the inquest heard.And thus they are free to cast about wildly for some other reason for this tragedy:
The inquest at Bolton Town Hall was told there are clear signs at traffic lights and before the junction telling drivers they must not turn right.Idiots. And it doesn't say a lot for her supposed '15 years driving experience', does it?
But Mr and Mrs Bardhaj told police they did not see the warnings and only found out about the restrictions following the accident.
After the inquest, Mrs Bardhaj, who has 15 years driving experience, said: 'Had it been a reasonable speed limit then she may have survived.'Translation: ‘I should be protected from the consequences of my own foolhardy actions by needless restrictions on everyone else’.
Already in the comments, people are calling for restrictions on learners carrying children, on sat-navs, on speed-limits, on amateurs teaching family members to drive. All part of the futile drive to ensure 100% safety 24/7/365 that Dick Puddlecote points out is bound to have unforeseen consequences.
Enough!
The blame for this accident lies four-square with Mr & Mrs Bardhaj, and no-one else. They have to live with it. It should end there.
6 comments:
We now live in the technological electronic equivalent of 'there are voices in my head and they told me to do it'
It should end there.
Not sure about that. Call me a cold hearted bastard if you like but I'd have been for carrying on with the prosecution myself. They're quick enough to punish motorists for purely technical offences that harm nobody, so why let someone off who has put their fucking brain on the hook while driving and caused the death of a child just because it was their own daughter? I'm not saying he should necessarily do any prison time -almost certainly he shouldn't - but to just wave the prosecution away as not in the public interests? Good message for the police and CPS to send out: hey everybody, it's okay to drive like a twat and kill children as long as they're your own.
As far as I'm concerned all modern technology should be banned from cars - it's time people are forced to think for themselves again.
But you've got to hope in the future, when we are all forced to travel in computer controlled "driver-less" cars, that all the databases are synchronised....
The office I work in is a few miles from a river, so far two seperate people have phoned with the nose of their car parked on the jetty saying that the Sat Nav tells them to drive across the river to get to the office. To date nobody has tried.
Just give it time....
I remember one case a year or so back where a car was driven onto a railway line.
"We now live in the technological electronic equivalent of 'there are voices in my head and they told me to do it'"
Spot on!
"Call me a cold hearted bastard if you like but I'd have been for carrying on with the prosecution myself. "
If so, you're in good company. I'd have done the same.
"But you've got to hope in the future, when we are all forced to travel in computer controlled "driver-less" cars, that all the databases are synchronised...."
Now there's a scary thought...
"...saying that the Sat Nav tells them to drive across the river to get to the office. To date nobody has tried."
Didn't some German motorist do just that a few years ago, because a bridge listed on a sat nav map had been removed?
Post a Comment