Opinions on a Touchy Subject

[Apathy]

Although it's probably possible for you to figure it out where this situation is happening, I'd ask you not to look for it on google out of respect.

A friend of mine just died. He's about my age. It sounds disrespectful to say it was his fault, but it basically was. He was riding on the hood of another friends car at around 50mph. Car swerved, hit a tree, my friend was thrown off. He died soon after.

The friend driving the car got charged with negligent homicide and is looking at possible 10 years in prison.

The main point of this thread is not to get condolences from anyone. I'm seeking opinions on what should happen. Do you think it's fair to send him to prison? I'm excluding ages because it makes it harder to google, but the driver is a minor if that affects opinions.

[oh_strange_one]

thats awful, its hard to say though because as the driver of the car he will legally hold most of the responsibilty on his shoulder as he should'nt have let him on hood of car, but saying that he will have toface life anyway knowing his friend has died because of both of their foolishness i think 10 years is too long based on the fact i'm assuming it was done out of stupidity and a lot of paedophiles and murderers these days dont even get half of that .

i know u said this is not for condolences but my condolences anyway sorry for ur loss

[Conspiracyof1000]

I'm not sure that he should be sent to jail, but he should be punished in some way because he let his friend be stupid enough to try and ride on the hood of his car.
But I'm only 15, what do i know...

[SkunkIt]

50 miles an hour riding on a hood of a car. Anyone should know that equals death. there was a guy in my school who died because he didn't have his seatbelt on. The car was going maybe 40 and he was sitting in the car. It reminds me of the guy who put a firecracker in his mouth and didn't expect to have his head blown off and be killed, no offense. However being a kid, they should have a special program that would allow him to learn from his mistake while being able to learn skills from the outside world since this is a crucial time between being a teenager and an adult. Otherwise, he'll have no working or social skills that he needs as an adult.

[Homer]

Yeah, Deathproof was alright...

But seriously. the driver should get some sort of punishment, since he was stupid enough to let this kid go onto the hood of his car whilst driving. At that point, it's his responsibility (assuming it was the driver's car). Though, 10 years is too much. I'd say a hefty fine and some community work should suffice.

[ad8]

Yeah, 10 years is way too long. Of course the friend has to be punished, but from what it sounded like, the driver didn't want the other guy to die. So it would be wrong to send the driver to jail for a longer time than most pedophiles/REAL criminals.

[MrJoe]

Although it may not have been directly the driver's fault, he ultimately held the responsibility and I'm sure he knows this - in which case I think that knowing he had a big part in his friend's death is punishment enough.

[The Talking Pie]

Of course he should serve the time. That's reckless, and it could easily have been an innocent bystander who died.

If you argue that murderers / rapists get the same kind of sentences, then that just means we should punish them more heavily.

[wheelchairman]

I would say he should get the time (up to 10 years doesn't mean he'll get the full ten years, so any time between 1-10 I suppose), but get a chance for parole after one or two years. (if the sentence is longer than that)

[Drafan]

He is punished already. 2 years could be enough..