Train Guard Found Guilty Over Girl's Death

[blisterpack]

I saw this article today and am really confused. How can a train guard be found guilty of manslaughter when an accident like this happens? And the quote from the poor guard,
McGee told the jury he thought Georgia was moving away from the train when he gave the signal to depart. He also said he did not know how drunk she was.

Should he have known then?

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

I will say again if someone was leaning on your car and you drove off killing them you would probably get 5 years too!

[Lulumama]

I thikn the verdict was correct, am a little surprised at the sentence but do agree with greensleeves commetn lower down the thread about sentence disparity.

if this was a different case, perhaps she would have been found contributarily negligent? but then the guard has a duty to safeguard all passengers, whether drunk or drugged or insensible by other means.

He made the wrong decision, and why should he drunkeness excuse that?

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

fanjo I disagree - there are loads of instances of people getting insulting (to victims and their families) sentences for causing death while driving.

[malinois]

@Fanjo: you're wrong.

You might get charged with causing death by careless driving and get a derisory community sentence and a driving ban. If you're very unlucky you might even have to retake your driving test.

Killing people with cars in this country is not really considered a big deal I'm afraid.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

so you would all like a 5 year sentence at LEAST for death by dangerous driving and feel the sentences should be equal. But think the one for the guard is too high. I am confused.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

However..they are entirely different cases and treated differently

[Greensleeves]

I agree that sentences for causing death by dangerous driving are often derisory

but even so, there is a difference in inherent responsibility between a private citizen driving a car and a train guard whose paid employment is to ensure trains leave the platform without causing injury or death. That's his job. He didn't do it. A girl died as a result.

[malinois]

@Fanjo: I haven't said either of those things.

I was merely pointing out that there seems to be a disparity whereby the case at hand has attracted a charge of negligent manslaughter (an extremely serious offence) whereas we have special offences of 'causing death by negligent/dangerous driving' for road vehicle operators - which typically attract much lighter sentences.

There is a very sad reason for this: in the days when drivers were charged with manslaughter if they killed someone, juries routinely refused to convict even in the face of obvious guilt.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Fair enough, was just the general impression i was receiving from people on the thread.

[CindySherman]

The verdit is just. He drove off whilst someone was leaning on his train!

Gut feeling he acted in contempt of her and a desire not to be late sorting it out . Disgusting.
I feel for her poor family the way she is being judged. He still has his life , a precious life that was taken from her because no one took care of a vulnerable person.
Please think if it was your daughter.

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

malinois bit like rape and sexual assault cases then.

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

think the sentence is right. It's the guard's job to make sure the train is ready to depart safely. It clearly wasn't, and he would have had to give an indication to the driver that it was OK to leave either by whistle or by hand signals. The fact that the girl in question was drunk is relevant as she was incapable so greater care should have been taken.

What the guard should have done was to call the Transport Police who would have either asked her to move or called an ambulance.

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

I have tried to think how I would feel if this was my child and I am not sure I would want another life ruined, another family to suffer.

The fall out for secondary victims is immense, the parents of the girl and her family and friends are all suffering, is making the guard and his family pay like this going to ease that pain or just cause more.

[Greensleeves]

but an innocent family suffers every time a criminal goes to prison. What an odd argument for not giving a custodial sentence.

[spoonsspoonsspoons]

Sentences for professional drivers are just as derisory.

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

It depends I think if you see this as "criminal", so far, I am not so sure he is. My husband is a biker and I have seen so many lenient sentences for things that are far, far, far more deliberate than this, drink drinking, simply not looking, mobile phones and in one case, a man who went on a drinking spree, hit someone, carried them on the roof of their car for a mile and severed their leg, leaving them dead in road and didn't get a custodial sentence (that was a long time ago, I cant find it on google, but it was a protest by MCN at sentencing, he had a suspended sentence and a motorcyclist was sent to prison over Christmas for speeding).

[specialsubject]

about as tragic as it gets for all concerned. I thought the legal age for buying alcohol, and being admitted to clubs, was 18 though? Who sold this girl all the booze, both to be swilled at home and in the club? (let alone the drugs)

responsibility for this one seems to me to be shared. The only good I can see is a warning to all concerned not to get so hammered. With normal reflexes she might have survived even given the mistake by the guard, trains don't pull away that quickly and the whistle tells you that it is moving.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

you wouldn't want someone to suffer if they had seen your child leaning on a train and given the signal to drive off anyway? I don't believe that.

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

Of course I do Mrs. DeVere, I would never imagine a rapist could come from a normal family!

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

it was negligent of his duty of care, so is criminal.

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

(sorry that is strictly not really the case in case that isnt clear).

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

Its the sentence compared to other sentencing that's the issue, not the verdict.

[izzyishavingababyAGAIN]

You are asking the wrong person Mrs. DeVere - I understand the fall out for families of rapists and victims only too well.