Crash on A66 that killed two police officers and 5 others…

[bookworm1982]

Am I correct that the other victims were 5 lads travelling in one car the wrong way up the motorway? EXACTLY the same as the 5 Irish lads who died a few days ago travelling the wrong way up a motorway too? Surely not twice in a week? Is there some sort of mental social media thing going on, telling kids to drive up the wrong way? Like a dare? Just cannot believe it happened once, let alone twice. Just devastating.

FFS at the balloon releases

Quite weird looking at this because I think a lot of people don’t really understand what’s happening

Would these horrors happen if there was no social media? Too many people want their '15 minutes of fame' (or notoriety) and don't much care how they get it.
I think the ridiculously offensive funerals are somehow linked to this notion too. The families of the criminally-minded youths are also desperate for their social media 'likes'. It's all now like a stage-set performance.

I’m beginning to think along the same lines. These young men need something to do that is bigger than themselves and installs a bit of discipline and purpose into their lives.

And we need social media gone.

I agree.

Young boys are too easily influenced and absentminded. There's something deeply wrong with many of them.

My DD dislikes being around boys other than my DS.

Social media didn't create joy riding. Joy riding has been around for way longer than social media. However....now the addiction and dopamine hit comes in 2 waves. 1. The theft and joyride. 2. The likes on SM.

I'd feel logically knowing what little I do about teenager brains...where fitting in and being accepted is king....
Having behavior championed is going to "drive" that behavior to further risk limits.

I'm a ridiculously compassionate and understanding person....but even I am finding little sympathy for these boys. Although I do feel it's sad their parents (in the Irish case...3 in Tulsa care/contact) neglecting care....what chance did they have.

However...the innocent family injured get most of my prayers.

TikTok should be banned, arguably all social media should be banned.

National service, at least in the military, is the last thing the services want. They don't need unwilling and unruly conscripts.

Such a pointless waste of seven lives.

The image of the Passat in the aftermath didn’t even look like a car just a crushed lump of black metal. The impact must have been extremely powerful. The officers had no chance.

The areas these lads and their mates are from are deprived and they fit into the areas they are in. It gets me wondering, where did pride and sense go? Im 40, I remember this tyow of person existed when I was a kid, but now my generation are the parents. So looking back to the grandparents and great grand parents - what happened to make social attitudes of pride and standards post-war completely switch to Benefit Britain ? We lost a lot of industry and workers lost their jobs, but how did that equate to generations who dont care to work and reject law and regular life?

One of the acquaintances had shared a photo of an undercover police car - the community was sharing and warning each other with disdain for the police. Where does that come from and how does it seed so much into communities!?

I don’t think it is social media really though. I’m in Ireland and joy riding was much worse in the 1990’s but I think cars are harder to steal now and there was lots of youth interventions. But we have motorways now so this type of joy riding is much more damaging .

@DancyNancy i agree with you. It’s so hard to have any empathy with the teens here. I have worked with disadvantaged families and I know myself how susceptible young disadvantaged boys are to this type of violent, reckless behaviour and often they never had a chance in life at all. I know all this. But I think it’s hard to have empathy because we are all forced to use the roads and behaviour like this puts ourselves and our families at risk.

It’s interesting to note that countries where rehabilitation of youth offenders is most successful tend not to use detention as a deterrent. Just because most people seem to call for detention. But the result of that is a moderate teen criminal just learns to become a high end criminal.

This is not TikTok. It’s a reinvented trend. It happened in the 80’s and the 90’s, not making any excuses, when there is a recession, cost of living crisis, the money dries up even for the drug dealers, their families, they start stealing anything they can, first sheds, homes, then cars. It’s a selfish bottom feeder mentality, greed and little consideration for anyone or anything. There was no internet the last time this was popular.

Social media didn't create joy riding. Joy riding has been around for way longer than social media.

But it didn't generally involve driving the wrong way down major roads ending in multiple fatalities. It was just driving around a bit then dumping the car. And cars are bigger and more powerful now, so if you hit something at speed you're going to do a lot more damage.

I remember hearing the late Henry Cooper talking about boxing as a sport for boys. He said yes it involves them hitting each other, but young males are naturally aggressive and it's better to work it off under supervision in a gym than have them beating each other up on street corners.

And in his day the boxing gyms and clubs were in the working class communities, in pubs or wherever, rather than in big leisure centres somewhere else, so it was easier to get the boys in. (And in Our 'Enry's day most of the coaches were likely to have seen military service so they wouldn't tolerate any nonsense.)

No, the Army wouldn't want them. But up until the 70s/80s, there was what was called Borstal Training. It was youth imprisonment, but they were also taught trades in the hope to rehabilitate them. (Looked it up on Wiki, and India still has Borstals.)
Money has to be spent on increasing prison places and youth custody. Some people aren't fit to live in civilized society but governments of all stripes seem reluctant to accept that reality. Recklessly destroying a life should always result in a harsh penalty

The algorithms offer you stuff related to stuff you have watched. It wouldn’t come up on your feed.

Some of the Irish teens had rap sheets and some had contact with Tusla (social services).

There's been a significant difference in coverage of last week's Irish crash and this one in England. The official statements in Ireland focused on the criminal recklessness of the teens in the speeding car, and sympathy was reserved for the innocent injured people on the other car, not for the dead boys or their families.

In contrast UK politicians and senior police officers have given sympathy/condolences to the families of all affected by the crash - some of the statements make it sound like a freak tragic accident.

I'm surprised how out of sync the UK politicians are with public opinion.

The remove and replace method. Past governments removed the industrial roles and did not replace them with something that people could do to earn money, keep busy, idle hands. When you lose your routine and job, you lose your sense of pride, eventually the area becomes lawless.

Years ago, decades, in my teens, I was in a car with my bf following his friend delivering a car to Scotland, and we had to dodge a car coming down the fast lane of the M6. Scary few moments. A woman was killed having joined the M77 in the wrong lane going the wrong way on the M77. Not the only one there either. It’s not that rare

There were plenty of fatalities back in the 80s when this was popular among a certain type of youth.

Irish roads and streets in particular saw carnage.

There is still a lot of reckless driving, nit necessarily in stolen cars or on motorways, usually involving teenage males, or males in their early 20s, on Irish roads. Reports of horrific fatal crashes on rural roads occur with depressing frequency.

Past governments removed the industrial roles

Governments didn't remove the industrial roles. Industries were just no longer producing what people wanted to buy at prices people wanted to pay.

I remember the government subsidies poured into industries back in the 70s, and they still failed in the end.

But then that isn't national service, which was the issue I was responding to.

Between eight year olds slathering themselves in retinoids, glorifying starving yourself and car theft plus a raft of other stupid, viral challenges which result in deaths: Can we finally just ban Thick Tok?

Waiting for the “he was a good boy, he loved his nan” meanwhile the photo is a black tracksuit clad sneering male with his middle finger up and a rap sheet as long as your arm. Because they always bloody are.

The Go Fund Me for the women and the little boy has had a huge response.

There is enormous public anger about this, and Garda presence at the funerals to prevent public affray. If any ostentatious monuments / gravestones are erected I doubt they will be left standing.

Or could we charge parents for contributory negligence?

If they can charge parents of school shooters in the US with culpability in the crimes of their children, why not use the legal reasoning in Britain or Ireland?