GUILTY OK - 4 dead, many injured when car crashed into crowd at OSU homecoming parade

[JeannaT]

This is so stupid. All these idiotic lawsuits have to end. Just because your toddler was killed, it doesn't mean you struck gold and can retire now. It's disgusting.

The manager sent her home. Not his fault she didn't call a taxi, not his responsibility either.

I don't think it would be an idiotic lawsuit, if it is found that she did indeed have seriously impairing drugs/alcohol in her system at the time of the crash.

Who does that? Reading up in the thread, the manager states she was a model employee and he never had any troubles with her at all. Who sends an employee off like that in that condition? I've been in a position to send a volunteer home from a shift who was too impaired (found out later she struggled with pain pills) but there is NO WAY we would have said you're acting really, really odd go drive home. No. We looked in her purse, found her ID and drove her home and alerted her family that she was impaired. Honestly, who on this thread would notice someone was visibly impaired and send them away to drive home? She could have been having a brain aneurism, a diabetic emergency, or in her case, could plow into a parade and kill and injure dozens. How tragic. I do understand why the manager is now not saying why she was let go that morning, and I bet he's really unhappy the coworker has said it was because she was too drugged to work.

 

[SCHMAE]

Well sure, maybe she was under the influence of a sleeping pill that hadn't worn off.....but you're that out of it/groggy, would you really get behind the wheel of a car? Most people would be afraid to even try and drive if they felt that out of it. I myself am very sensitive to pain meds, even just one Tylenol #3 makes me feel off, enough that I'd be afraid to drive. Officers at the scene obviously had enough good reason to suspect she was under the influence, her workplace found her to be also, and she looks impaired in her mugshot - so if that impaired by whatever it was, hard to imagine she felt safe enough to drive. That being said, if she was impaired due to alcohol, I would imagine her breath would have smelled of booze, and the coworker who was interviewed who reports she'd been sent home because she seemed to be under the influence of "drugs", well I'm sure they'd have mentioned her smelling like booze if she had. There must be a reason her employer allegedly felt she was on drugs and not drunk. Sad though, if they did feel she was too impaired to work such that they sent her home, that they didn't send her in a taxi, or call a family member/her boyfriend to pick her up. If she'd worked there for the length of time it's reported, surely her coworkers would have known that she got to work by driving. Maybe this could have all been prevented had someone ensured she had a safe way to get home. And it doesn't sound like she was known to drink or do drugs so did it occur to anyone at her workplace that maybe she had some kind of medical issue? (eg: diabetes) If I worked with someone who was very softspoken, timid and quiet....who was not known to be the party type, and they showed up at work appearing to be "on drugs", I would be calling someone in their family, their spouse/partner, or maybe even an ambulance.

Sleeping pills and lots of other heavy duty narcotics say on the presciption bottle as well as the accompanying paperwork ' do NOT drive or operate machinery '' while taking this medicine. That is as clear a warning as there is . SO if you are prescribed a sleeping pill that says that on it and you do drive while on it, you're driving under the influence. It's sad and perhaps a bit more sad than an alcoholic who regularly drives drunk but it is still legally and morally driving under the influence. It's moo and it's true.

 

[SCHMAE]

This is so stupid. All these idiotic lawsuits have to end. Just because your toddler was killed, it doesn't mean you struck gold and can retire now. It's disgusting.

The manager sent her home. Not his fault she didn't call a taxi, not his responsibility either.

I agree with all of this post.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Today Show report (earlier this morning): http://my.xfinity.com/video/five-re...499860/Comcast/Today_in_Video?cid=hero_sf_TIV

 

[Lulu14]

I don't think it would be an idiotic lawsuit, if it is found that she did indeed have seriously impairing drugs/alcohol in her system at the time of the crash.

Who does that? Reading up in the thread, the manager states she was a model employee and he never had any troubles with her at all. Who sends an employee off like that in that condition? I've been in a position to send a volunteer home from a shift who was too impaired (found out later she struggled with pain pills) but there is NO WAY we would have said you're acting really, really odd go drive home. No. We looked in her purse, found her ID and drove her home and alerted her family that she was impaired. Honestly, who on this thread would notice someone was visibly impaired and send them away to drive home? She could have been having a brain aneurism, a diabetic emergency, or in her case, could plow into a parade and kill and injure dozens. How tragic. I do understand why the manager is now not saying why she was let go that morning, and I bet he's really unhappy the coworker has said it was because she was too drugged to work.

Again, not the manager's responsibility. Everyone should put on their big boy pants. It is not my responsibility to babysit an employee after it leaves work.

 

[JeannaT]

Again, not the manager's responsibility. Everyone should put on their big boy pants. It is not my responsibility to babysit an employee after it leaves work.

Well, again, I agree that I don't know if there's legal precedent, and if an employer is legally responsible for the damage caused by an employee they knowingly send out to drive impaired. I know morally, we are all more responsible to each other than that. As her friends, (coworkers) and her employer, they are morally more responsible than that. Would you feel differently if it turns out she was, in fact, having a diabetic emergency or aneurism or some other blameless condition that caused her impairment? BTW, the newest article states she's still hospitalized. I don't know what that's about. This whole thing seems so sad, and so preventable. Maybe I see it differently than others - but this to me falls under the category of "depraved indifference to human safety".

 

[alexwood]

It's not completely clear in the articles that she was intoxicated by alcohol. I wonder if it will turn out to be a combination of Rx drugs or a seizure. 10:30 am is awfully early to be so extremely drunk.

What a sad case.

From eyes in mugshot, looks like under influence of opioids (e.g., Oxycodone, narcotic pain killers)

 

[Nana]

From eyes in mugshot, looks like under influence of opioids (e.g., Oxycodone, narcotic pain killers)

How can yo tell? Not being snarky, but very interested how one can tell by looking at her eyes.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

There is going to be plenty of excuses and sympathy for the perp in this case because of the demographics she fits into.

 

[leah]

From eyes in mugshot, looks like under influence of opioids (e.g., Oxycodone, narcotic pain killers)

I don't know of course what she was on, or this was a medical emergency she may have suffered. But if it is from alcohol, or drugs she is taking like Ambien, or any other, you clearly know that getting behind a wheel of a car is wrong. If you drive a car you know this, in my world there isn't an excuse in the world that I would listen too if it happens to be booze or her knowingly taking a drug that can impair driving. When I was young there weren't advertising and groups talking about impaired driving, in the town I lived the police would drive behind the drunk to make sure he/she got home. Now things are very different.

 

[Isabelle]

The driver may have had a medical emergency that started while at work, such as a developing stroke. She would not realize something was wrong. It is not out of the realm that someone at work put something in a drink that she may have consumed ( this did happen to my daughter and she was almost killed whether car flipped on the interstate). Then again she may have been intoxicated of her own doing. Just have to wait.

 

[JeannaT]

There is going to be plenty of excuses and sympathy for the perp in this case because of the demographics she fits into.

Well, maybe that's deserved. The demographic she fits into, IMHO, is she is young, respectable and responsible and generally known as shy and reserved, and not a drinker/drugger/partier. From what we know now, until the lab results come in, I think that should buy her a little benefit of the doubt.

 

[jjenny]

I don't put much value in what relatives claim in a situation like this. Parents always seem to be claiming their child is a "good boy" or "good girl," whether it has anything resembling to the truth or not.

 

[JeannaT]

I don't put much value in what relatives claim in a situation like this. Parents always seem to be claiming their child is a "good boy" or "good girl," whether it has anything resembling to the truth or not.

I'm talking about what her co-worker and boss said.

 

[sonjay]

There is going to be plenty of excuses and sympathy for the perp in this case because of the demographics she fits into.

No excuses and no sympathy here. She mowed down a bunch of people and killed at least 4. I don't care what "demographic" she fits into; she's not fit to live free in a civilized society.

 

[SCHMAE]

I think 24 hrs later if she had a medical emergency and not under the influence, that would have been released by now. Have
any of her friends or family said she had a medical condition that would lead to something like this or is this a lot of devil's advocate?

 

[Isabelle]

I think 24 hrs later if she had a medical emergency and not under the influence, that would have been released by now. Has any of her friends or family said she had a medical condition that would lead to something like this or is this a lot of devil's advocate?

I've read on this thread that the driver is in the hospital. When was she taken to the hospital? LE got her mugshot and I wouldn't think that would be done in the hospital. Thanks

 

[Hippiemomof5]

If someone is so impaired that you're sending them home, do you really think they're capable of making the wise decision to call a cab or family member because they can't drive? No. That's why morally, whoever sent her home should have looked out for her. I don't think that means a lawsuit needs to be filed, but it's an eye opener for humanity. One extra step of kindness could have saved a lot of people. However, I am NOT saying this is not the driver's fault. Bottom line, barring medical emergency, she put herself in a position to cause harm to herself and others. She needs to pay the price for that.

 

[alexwood]

If you took ambien and that impaired your driving, you are driving under the influence. DUI doesn't mean you had to have taken illegal drugs or alcohol, it could be legal drugs if they impaired your driving. You also don't have to want to hurt anybody for you to be guilty of DUI.

I think many accidents occur because of driving impaired due to legal (prescription) drugs, used as prescribed, or abused: Ambien, Lunesta, Belsomra, Rozerem (sleep agents in the class: sedative-hypnotics); Xanax, Ativan, Valium, Klonopin (anti-anxiety drugs, a/k/a anxiolytics, in the class: benzodiazepines); opioids (Oxycontin, Oxycodone anagelsics/painkillers). Collisions, fender benders, etc. Accidents which, in my opinion, were preventable. The pill bottles carry warning labels, and the pharmacy customer receives reams of pharmacy information on the medication when it is dispensed.

Unfortunately, the presence of these drugs is not detected unless the individuals involved in the accidents are drug tested. Maybe nobody is killed, but I know someone whose injury (arm broken in several places; not wearing seatbelt) was treated by a $100,000.00 surgery bill. That individual was under the influence of Xanax -- although she is now suing the driver THAT SHE HIT because, "they pulled out of the drive into the main road in front of me!" The fact that she was not wearing her seatbelt was not revealed because she exited the vehicle before EMT or law enforcement arrived. If she gets a huge windfall, I will just have to scratch my head.

But, I won't wonder why MY health insurance premiums and vehicle insurance rise every year.

 

[alexwood]

How can yo tell? Not being snarky, but very interested how one can tell by looking at her eyes.

Pinpoint pupils. But, that observation is just mine. I could be wrong.