No Justice

[bubblewrap]

When I first moved to SA back in 82, in the papers, there was a man who killed a family of 4 through drunk driving and got a R200 fine(got off on a technicallity and something about not possessing a sound mind at the time ..... in the same paper a few pages on a man got fined R1000 for fishing in the wrong place(he was in possesion of a fishing permit too) I will never forget that day....I have never seen the system in the same light.... I was 8 at the time but I think it was the first real lesson in the worlds not a fair or just place!

Was the driver white & those killed black & was the fisherman black too!

[LizyDrippin]

Just checked the story on the BBC website and they are the same person, but it does make it clear that the laptop is just speculation. In any case, it was an awful tragedy, however you look at it.

The laptop was open and on when the "accident" happened. It was speculated that he had been looking at it for directions at the time of the accident.

It was a fairly straight bit of road with good visability.

The driver did not slow down and rammed into stationery traffic crushing the families car between himself and a truck in front.

His defence tried to claim that he shouldn't be charged with their deaths as it might have been the family who crashed into the truck in front and that killed them and that when he hit them they would already be dead.

This wasn't a slight momentary lapse, to not notice on a straight piece of road with good visability that the traffic in front of you is coming to a halt is more than careless.

[beefy]

Just to clear up any confusion . Many lorry drivers use a laptop with a satnav program in it for navigation because the satnavs that the cardriver would use are to far away and the screen is to small to be read accurately.Much is being made of this - nobody explians that the laptop was being used as a satnav - it wasn't being used to send email or browse the web or watch DVD's.Thats also why the screen would have been facing the driver . Would you put a satnav in the car and face it where you could not see it ?