To actually feel sorry for the woman driving the car in the Wimbledon car accident

[bagpuss90]

I’m sure I’ll be flamed here . I totally sympathise with the bereaved parents- I can’t stress that enough. I can understand them wanting justice . As we know the driver of the car suffered an epileptic seizure at the wheel - she had no history of epilepsy. I don’t see what she could have done differently. She has to live with what she did although it wasn’t her fault. AIBU to feel quite sorry for her ?

Re her selling the cars / her job - see what I replied above. If this happens to be an unfortunately woman with the same name, I'll amend my post accordingly.

"Why on earth do you believe anyone should answer your question about what driving courses they have done? It’s beyond arrogant to believer you should be able to randomly go up to someone and question them and have them answer you."

The context wasn't me marching over to grill them, it was Ms New Owner, who is a friend of mine, coming over to a group of us and laughing about how she was five minutes late because she needed to park further away so she could fit the car into a bay. I sympathised with her and explained that I'd done x or y course back home to get a handle on the car and asked whether she'd seen the equivalent that they do up in Hertfordshire. And the conversation went from there.

So it is better to be vengeful and make up all sorts of shit to further demonise the driver?

I don’t see anyone on here not having empathy for the families, but there is a legal framework around incidents like this both in terms of culpability and the medical context, the restriction on future driving etc. that society has arrived at in an attempt at fairness / justice. I wonder how much of this “Empathy” for the families is because they are “people like us” and easier to relate to, and therefore you take their side in challenging that legal framework? Perhaps it isn’t the justice system that is cruel but summoning a virtual lynchmob is?

How is any of what you’ve posted relevant to this case ? There’s no evidence she was a bad driver or couldn’t handle the car, and the fact that others may have a problem with them is irrelevant. The size or model of the car is irrelevant as is her reason for owning/driving it. The nature of the accident makes it likely that most other cars would have caused the same outcome - there was no attempt to brake, so in effect it was a runaway vehicle. If there is solid medical evidence to support the fact that she had a seizure then it will come out at the inquest. Why not just wait until then instead of hijacking a tragic incident to serve your own agenda ?

It's what I said this morning just after 9:

I don't know what happened. Neither do you. But I don't think sudden onset fit and memory loss is the only possible explanation. If I was a parent to one of these girls I would push to see and examine every last scrap of evidence.

I don't think a sudden onset fit and memory loss is the only possible explanation.

Exactly. There's a possibility that a year ago tabloids were using another woman's photos by mistake but it's literally the same person that was pictured in their articles and the photos are now gone from news websites.

So, as I asked upthread, what is your alternative explanation that accounts for the known evidence (she had no alcohol or drugs in her blood, the car would have been checked and its sensor data recorded, she made no attempt to brake or swerve even after mounting the pavement and crashing through a fence)? Don’t just hint at us, tell us what you think those other possible explanations are.

It is if the medical evidence shows that was what happened. There was no evidence of the brake being applied, even after she crashed through the fence and was headed for the building. Crash investigators advised that in these circumstances this is consistent with loss of consciousness due to medical emergency. The inquest will reveal whether the medical evidence supports this. If you think a seizure is not the only possible explanation perhaps you’d like to enlighten us all as to what you think happened ?

Because other people are serving their agenda here extensively to heckle and bury all the posts with alternative opinions. It feels like a weird bot attack.
I could stop if they stopped.

Someone shared the evidence with you? Or how did it become "known" to you but not the parents?

So you asked one parent who was a friend and it was casual conversation. Not really what you made out in the post then? Not several parents looking at you blankly?

Everything in your posts was irrelevant to this particular individual case.

I'm happy to give you more examples from my experience, but they are all versions of the same.

Have you read the report from crash investigators?
Is medical emergency the only reason for people mixing up breaks with accelerator?
She knew the area and if she in fact was concious she would realize she's crushing into the school and could mix up pedals in panick.

Yes, I feel I’m getting upset with posters who just have an agenda. No ordinary parent would belittle this situation and why defend the driver so personally and vigorously? I find the driver and who/what she is of little importance. That’s not the point. The point is feeling distressed for the victims, which the loudest voices on this thread clearly want to sneer at and shut down.

What other explanations do you think there are?

No one is belittling the situation. You are making that up.

No one has said the family shouldn’t be upset. No one has even said that they shouldn’t feel the way they feel. No one has made out the accident isn’t hugely devastating.

At the moment the information is that the driver didn’t do anything wrong and couldn’t have predicted a medical episode. The thread is about the driver. There’s nothing do defend them from, because at the moment the information is that the driver did nothing wrong.

The parents aren’t on this thread so no one is shutting them down. No one is saying they shouldn’t be able to speak up or express their thoughts. No one has said they don’t have sympathy for them.

But a lot of people can understand that, while this is devastating, it doesn’t automatically follow that someone is to blame. It doesn’t always have to be someone’s fault.

I have been called”childish” (twice) and told I’m “making up shit” (by two posters using exactly the same words… ) - by the way I’ve made up nothing.

These do not sound like normal reactions to a tragedy of this magnitude.

Yea not what you made out in your post, then.

and still entirely irrelevant to this actual case.

I feel massive distress for the victims. It is a tragedy of a magnitude that most of us can’t even begin to comprehend.
The thread was about whether anyone feels empathy for the driver. Yes, I do. Not as much as with the families of the victims of course, but I still feel tremendous empathy for her. There is enough to go round.

It isn’t a matter of defending the driver. They are pointing out that if, she was unconscious, she is not legally culpable. All the evidence so far released by the Police points to them thinking it was a case of “autoism”

You can have the utmost empathy with the parents, it was a tragic accident, and given they have been kept waiting so long and that not every witness has been interviewed, of course in the circumstances they want answers. However why are some people who clearly do not understand either the medical or legal context twisting themselves up in knots to think of some other explanation? As I say a virtual lunch mob.

There's been no evidences released by the police, there was a "source" planting some information favouring a certain version in The Sun a year ago and other tabloids reprinting it.
Or please share the link to "the evidence".

Ok report us to MNHQ. I am sure they can advise you wether we are new posters or not.

I changed my name several weeks ago. Didn’t think to run it by you? Are you suggesting I joined weeks ago, in anticipation of this coming up? Really?

You posting history is sketchy itself, if you wanted it to look that way, a few old posts then massive gaps then again recently the vast majority on this thread. Who are you doing PR for? Did you come back a few weeks ago since you knew this thread would come up?

You forgot to mention evidences and lynch mob.

Like I said. Feel free to report us. Go ahead and do it.

or is it another one of those things that you feel superior saying but wouldn’t actually do anything about.