NY Driver...

[protege]

Just so I have this straight. Your final argument is seriously going to be she left herself open to sexual harassment by wearing a bikini top. Because she should knew better that men just can't help themselves around tits?

Holy crap, I'm *agreeing* with GK

Seriously, this same argument has been used for years by rapists, and other assholes. They try to justify their actions because the victim "was asking for it" by choosing to wear skimpy clothing. Again, are you kidding me? If the guy in question was using that line, he's an asshole. Nobody, no matter *what* they're wearing, should have to put up with that shit.

[Gravekeeper]

Holy crap, I'm *agreeing* with GK

If Greenday and Panacea end up agreeing with me I think you should just close the thread before the 7th seal is broken. >.>

[protege]

Probably

But, I have driven on the NY Thruway. It's not exactly a highway that you want to stop along. Traffic tends to move at speeds well over the posted speed limit. I mean, I was doing about 75-80mph, and people were passing me like I was standing still. With that said, the driver might have found it extremely difficult to move over safely, especially if traffic was heavy.

[Ginger Tea]

What if she was ticklish and he decided now would be a good time to find out?

One of the women at my old job tickled me from behind and I reflexed back and cracked her on her nose.

[BlaqueKatt]

If Greenday and Panacea end up agreeing with me I think you should just close the thread before the 7th seal is broken. >.>

Too late, I Agree with you. <_< we're doomed.

[Rageaholic]

Too late, I Agree with you. <_< we're doomed.

So do I.

I hate people who do stupid/dangerous things without much thought. This dude has to be a real asshole to harass the driver of a car that he was the passenger of. Dumbass.

I'm surprised the appeals court has just reached a settlement over something that happened five years ago. Does it usually take this long to settle things?

[protege]

I'm surprised the appeals court has just reached a settlement over something that happened five years ago. Does it usually take this long to settle things?

Depends on the case, and how backed up the courts are. My grandmother's auto accident from '94 took a whopping ten years to settle. She was simply driving my cousin to my uncle's dad's (my cousin's granddad, in other words) place in the next town over. About a mile from the house, some asshole in a dump truck rear-ended her car...forcing it into the path of a logging truck coming the other way

The driver of that truck tried to stop, but he hit her head-on. Both my cousin and Grandma had to be flown via helicopter to the hospital. They had serious injuries, which quickly used up the insurance. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, folks. 6 months of Grandma being in the hospital, plus the rehab just so she could *walk* again wasn't cheap. Neither was my cousin's plastic surgery.

It took 10 years to get that mess taken care of. Some of it was because of the court system's backlog, some of it was because of the multiple victims. The lawyers had to sort out all of the details. Grandma and my cousin weren't the only victims--after the dump truck hit their car, he rammed a PennDOT (state highway dept) truck ahead of her, knocking it over That added more delays--Pennsylvania might have well *invented* red tape.

In the end, we bankrupted the bastard. My grandmother didn't have to worry about money for the rest of her life. Neither will my cousin--his college, and now med school...is paid for.

As for the asshole in the article, I'd like to know what the fuck he was thinking. I mean, on what planet is it a good idea to distract the driver?

[Greenday]

If Greenday and Panacea end up agreeing with me I think you should just close the thread before the 7th seal is broken. >.>

Sorry for coming in so late. Was busy with American Turkey Day all day long.

Driver is not to blame. In fact it's downright ridiculous to blame her.

Aethian, have you ever driven with a hoodie on? Well, if someone grabs the hood and yanks, choking you, by your logic that's your fault. Wait, what if you are just wearing a t-shirt? Well, a passenger could lift it over your head which obstructs your view. Clearly your fault.

The fact that there's any debate on this is freaking ridiculous to be honest.

[Nyoibo]

By that logic, me being able to undo a bra one handed in about 1-2 seconds means that its the drivers fault for wearing a bra if I undo it and we crash... wanna go driving some time?

[SkullKing]

It's the same as those people who wear high heels that make it harder to hit the brakes. Or hell how about the people who eat/apply makeup/talk or txt on cell phones... ALL of those cause distractions to the driver.

Very different situations.

All the situations you mentioned cause distractions by themselves. The wearing a top, was only a problem because a person though that to sexually harass a driver in order to distract her was a good idea.

If she was wearing a shirt, absolutely nothing would have prevented the other person to lift/pull down her shirt, causing the same results.

In your examples the driver itself is the problem, in the OP if she was acting exactly the same way, and the other passengers were acting right nothing would have happened.

[s_stabeler]

I agree- it's not the driver's fault.

[AccountingDrone]

Not exactly the drivers fault, BUT - she could have put a large tshirt over the top of her body, taken off the bikini top and put a bra on. Yes, I have changed bathing suits on a beach under large clothing. I do not want to be wearing a possibly salty and sunscreen soaked bit of string, it causes skin irritation. I would much rather be traveling in a comfy tshirt. And yes, you can take the bottoms off while wearing a large [non mini] skirt as well and slip into regular underwear.

Or you could change out of the bathing suit in the bathroom or portajohn at the damned beach.

[hot button from living on the ocean for 8 years, salty sandy ass crack on MY leather seats, oh fuck no!]

[wolfie]

There were some inconsistencies in the stories (described as "NYC driver", and "Returning to Rockland county" - NYC is not in that county). I'll make a couple assumptions - that "the shore" referred to either New Jersey or (less likely) Lake Ontario. In either case, they'd have traveled a fair distance on the tollway (NJTP if coming from a NJ beach).

One area where I'd fault the driver is that the untying of her top was merely the latest in a string of incidents where the (killed in crash) guy had tried to distract her. Coming from the shore along the tollway, they would have passed a number of service plazas, i.e. places where it's safe to stop. At the FIRST attempted distraction, she should have told him "DO NOT try to distract me. If this doesn't stop NOW, you'll be finding alternate transportation home." If there was a full-width shoulder at that point (as can be found at various points along the tollway), she should have pulled over and stopped there to get his acknowledgement that this is something you DON'T DO. At the second attempted distraction, she should have pulled over at the first safe place to do so (shoulder or service plaza), and not started moving again until he was out of the car. An asshole like that deserves to be abandoned at the side of the road.

[Kelmon]

First of all: I totally agree with the majority that this is in no way the driver's fault.

As for the "she could have pulled over earlier": Well, would you? Really? The way i see it, until he untied her top, distracting her from the road, he was just a minor annoyance, which the driver could probably tolerate, because she didn't imagine he would go on to distract her in that way which would prove fatal for that very guy.
I've had people in the backseat of my car - drunk and /or stupid - being a little rowdy, but i would just let them be, because i would usually trust them not to do something *really* stupid like - say - suddenly pulling my shirt over my head or punching me in the face.

[Gravekeeper]

There were some inconsistencies in the stories (described as "NYC driver", and "Returning to Rockland county" - NYC is not in that county).

That's not an inconsistency. She herself lives in Manhattan. But she was driving from New Jersey shore to Rockland County on the New York Thruway. It actually occurred just before the next exit she could have taken to pull over.

One area where I'd fault the driver is that the untying of her top was merely the latest in a string of incidents where the (killed in crash) guy had tried to distract her.

That was the case the prosecution tried to make but the jury and the judges disagreed. We also don't know if she DID tell him to stop or otherwise fuck off. She could even have been at the "Do that once more and I'm dropping you off at the nearest exit" point and he took it as a challenge to be a bigger fuckwit. Still, it is not reasonable for her to expect that one of her passengers was literally going to try and kill them all.

Also, again, the reason the idiot is dead is because he had no seat belt on so he was ejected from the car when it flipped. The idiot that sued her also did not have his seat belt on.