Woman soldier who survived two tours of duty in Afghanistan killed by driver updating his Facebook p

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Daily Mail

A soldier who survived two tours of Afghanistan was killed when a van driver hit her car seconds after using his mobile phone to update his Facebook page.

Plumber Paul Mould drifted across double white lines and hit servicewoman Stephanie Armsby’s car head-on, killing her instantly.

Lincoln Crown Court was told that Mould spent the hours before the crash celebrating his 26th birthday with his family and was on the way to visit his girlfriend.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053445/Woman-soldier-killed-driver-updating-Facebook-page-surviving-duty-Afghanistan.html#ixzz1bq3ijxdi


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053445/Woman-soldier-killed-driver-updating-Facebook-page-surviving-duty-Afghanistan.html

[MADem]

1. IDIOT. ASSHOLE.

Throw the book at him.

[Devil_Fish]

2. I'm in favor of the death sentance on this one. NT

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. really? for being stupid and careless?

:eyes:

[libinnyandia]

10. responsibility

The guy is responsible for a death. Maybe 50 years in prison. Hopefully that would deter other idiots, though probably not. But at least he wouldn,t be able to kill anyone else.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. yeah, we should totally kill him instead of revoking his license or putting him in prison

because he totally deserves it :eyes:

[leftyohiolib]

15. it's wreckless endangerment if he hadnt hit someone now it's

vehicular manslaughter. if he was taking his eyes off the road to text on his cell phone then it's murder. it's not an accident if you're texting and driving. stupid and careless, what an understatment! wow

[La Lioness Priyanka]

20. since when is vehicular manslaughter worthy of capital punishment

or were you too "intelligent" to read the context under which i made my statement?

[canetoad]

24. It certainly wasn't "wreckless"

Look it up.

[mindwalker_i]

17. For ignoring the fact

that his actions would kill someone! Doing things that keep you from killing someone with a multi-ton vehicle isn't a mistake.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. you're saying this is worthy of the death penalty

and you people wonder how the rich/insurance companies/whomever isnt you lack empathy. lack of empathy and excessive desire to make people hurt is endemic of this culture

[mindwalker_i]

27. Where I used to live until just recently

I had a neighbor who was ALWAYS on her phone when pulling into (or out of) her parking space. When I called her on it - and yes, it's illegal in CA - she said, "sometimes you just have to do it." Every fucking day? Texting or updating facebook? Are you FUCKING kidding me? Gee whiz, I might kill someone with this multi-ton mountain of metal, but I just have to update facebook. I know I might KILL someone, as the data shows quite clearly, but I just have to do it - translation: I want to, more than I care about killing people.

In a society, we give up some freedoms to live in a world that's better for us all. Like we give up doing things that kill people as a side effect of our actions. This is deliberate disregard. And I'm fucking sick of people's attitude that they're fun is more important than other people's lives.

[Devil_Fish]

18. YES. Belated darawin award. I don't want that kind of stupid on the road way. NT

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. he wouldnt be driving if he were in jail or if his license was revoked

but ordering the state to kill him? really?

[Devil_Fish]

34. Yup. Make an example out of him. He could have killed my child.

And you can be damn sure that when my child gets a phone, it's going to have that app installed that won't even let you talk wile driving.

In responce to your post, He did not obay the law regarding texting wile driving, what makes you think he will not drive on a suspended license?

Opperating a vehicle is literally life and death. Auto accidents are the number one cause of death of children in the US. THE NUMBER ONE. It's time we started acting like it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

38. thats really unethical decision making. using someones life as an example

to further your own agenda. ugh

[Devil_Fish]

57. Ya, my "own agenda" of keeping children alive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LCmStIw9E

[Psephos]

58. wow, that PSA is exceptional n/t

[boppers]

65. +1

Yeah, gets me every time I see it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

61. by killing someone, who may have been negligent but certainly

did not intend to kill?

[PavePusher]

68. "he wouldnt be driving if... his license was revoked"

Right, pull the other one now.

[TheMadMonk]

30. Stupidity is the only truly capital crime. EOM

[No Elephants]

41. There is such a thing as criminal negligence, but it is not typically a capital offense, at

least not in so-called civilized societies.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

49. i agree that this may be crimininal negligence, but advocating death for it

is absurd :)

[SoCalDemGrrl]

31. This is a whole new world we're in and young people dont realize the danger

of texting, updating your facebook etc. while driving.

In some ways they have been taught to multi-task and to admire those who can and I truly believe that

we need to educate them that multi-tasking when in an office, a classroom or at home

is OK - but it is DANGEROUS when in an automobile.

In this case I feel sorry for both parties :(

[mikeytherat]

36. YOUNG people? The man in question is 26 years old!

This isn't some teen with a freshly-minted license, this idiot is a 26-year-old-man. And I'd wager that 90%+ of the other idiots out there DO understand how dangerous it is to multi-task while driving, and they just don't care.

mikey_the_rat

[No Elephants]

42. Why so shocked? 26 is neither teen, middle aged or old. 26 is a young person.

Is 26 old enough to have lost all vestiges of that assumption of immortality that seems to live in the very young?

I don't know.

Claiming people just don't care if they are in car accidents is, however, a fairly bold claim. As I recall, damage to the car I was driving, putting my face through a windshield and hurting someone else were all things I cared very much about.

I just never seriously believed any of that would happen to me. And, yes, that is a function of youth.

[antigone382]

46. Thank you. n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

50. well said. nt

[JI7]

62. This happened in the UK, they don't have the death penalty

[JuniperLea]

3. I see this stupidity every day in Los Angeles...

Head down while weaving... traffic wizzing by them because they are doing 40 on the fucking freeway! Clueless asshats all!

[kestrel91316]

12. As a pedestrian I get nearly hit by these idjits on a regular basis in Lost Angeles.

[JaneQPublic]

13. Here in Maryland, too, and we have laws against phoning and texting while driving.

Yet just yesterday I saw a kid in a car, head down, apparently texting, while drifting between lanes. Finally, he stopped his car altogether, right in the middle of the road, while he was totally engrossed in this text messages.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Death is random.

Now I'm going to be humming Alanis Morrisete's song for the rest of the day. Damn.

[PavePusher]

73. Not really. Lots of personnal choices affect time and manner. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

5. I hate reading stories like these- but I make a point of doing so. It reminds me just how closely..

...death stalks us all. Make the most of it, folks! I don't care if you like putting together little model airplanes or posting on DU or reading comic books. Whatever it is, do what you wanna do, be what you are.

Just don't let someone or something stop you from being you. Because some day, in some way, a truck is going to cross the center line and smack into all of us.

Oh...and I shouldn't have to remind people of this but it never hurts: If you love somebody, always let them know it.

PB

[Mira]

11. Thank you for your thoughtful and accurate words. n/t

[deutsey]

40. Couldn't agree more

Thanks for saying how I feel. :hug:

[antigone382]

47. Thank you. n/t

[YvonneCa]

55. That is a ...

...lovely post. :) Thank you!

[TacticalPeek]

6. Maybe not so random with this fuckhead.

"The court heard Mould, who ran his own plumbing business, had previously received a fixed penalty ticket for driving while using a mobile phone."

from the linked article


Double that sentence, no triple - no, quadruple it.

[iandhr]

7. What a moron

[pasto76]

9. DISTRACTED DRIVING KILLS. _Dont_do_it_

[seacaves]

14. This is so senseless. Best to the family.

[latebloomer]

16. My friend died like this

Killed in a head-on with a texting teen. Teen died too. My friend Stacy was a wonderful warm person, 40 years old, a lifelong activist and irreplaceable mother of a 6-year-old girl.

[antigone382]

23. Having lost a friend in an accident when another friend was driving...

...I have to say I am moved to feel some empathy for the driver of the van. He now has to live with the responsibility of another person's death. He behaved in an immature and irresponsible manner, and he should be held accountable for his actions. But I have seen what that kind of guilt does to people, and I can honestly say I would rather be in the shoes of the woman who was killed, than in the shoes of the man whose actions killed her.

[Darth_Kitten]

26. Well, some people deserve to feel guilt...

if they were being careless/irresponsible/stupid/selfish. It's human lives we are talking about. :(

[antigone382]

45. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve the guilt. But I don't envy it.

A life is lost, another life is made "forfeit," and several other lives are severely destroyed in the process. I have seen retributive justice at work, and I get no pleasure from its results--it dehumanizes everyone who is touched by it, demands enmity where common grief might do more to heal, and does nothing to properly address the significance of the lives lost. Retribution can never cover the human cost in these situations. Only redemption can--and there is no option for that in our culture's dominant conception of justice.

I'm coming at this from a really personal perspective. I don't think he shouldn't have to pay for his choices. I just know the real magnitude of these kinds of tragedies, and the way our culture structures its response to them causes profoundly more harm than good, in my opinion.

[TheMadMonk]

33. It's that misguided empathy which promotes this sort of behaviour.

He has to live with what he's done. He's going to serve a life sentence. Everyone's feeling for the victim, who's "feeling" for the other guy?

AND BEFORE IT HAPPENS?

You DON'T know what it's like. What you DO KNOW is the ridiculously light sentences handed out, time after time, after time, to a fifth (or 50th) offense drunk driver. You hear the yobs and hoons laughing at the prospect of a 2 year suspended sentence.

You internalise that "low price to pay", unconsciously make it part of your personal risk assesment process and automatically reach to answer the phone as it rings beside you.

People run the red light or run in front of trains, because left to their own devices humans are very poor assessors of risk. They will almost invariably indulge in the sort of wishful thinking which focuses on the most immediate rewards and dismisses possible consequences of failing to gain those rewards.

And our increasingly cotton batted world only amplifies matters: Who hasn't nearly cleaned up a obliviot as they destroy their hearing with their idiot-pod? Heard the horror story of the teen walking down the railway line oblivious to the train approaching from behind?

Who is old enough to have a mother who'd leave you thinking you'd have been better off if the car had hit you?

Who is young enough to have lost a friend, because their friend's mother flew at the drivers who MISSED their kid?


You do wrong. You pay a price for everyone to see. And the price paid must be comensurate with societal perceptions. Because without a sufficiently harsh penalty, people are far too likely to make a bad decision, based upon how likely they are to get away with it, than what happens when they don't.

[dipsydoodle]

35. UK penalties are 12 months - 14 years max sentence.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/death_by_dangerous_driving/

[antigone382]

43. Empathy is never misguided.

That doesn't mean I don't think people should face the consequences of their choices. It means that I have the humility to accept that like this man, I have been a poor assessor of risk in the past--as I would say most of us have. It is a tragedy for everyone involved.

[Darth_Kitten]

25. I'm so sorry.

:hug:

[renate]

66. that is so sad

What a horrible, horrible tragedy. I'm really sorry. And now her daughter has to grow up without her mom (and the teenager's parents have to grow old without their kid). Stupid phones.

[BlueIris]

28. People who text or talk while driving are selfish, asshole fuckwits.

And in this case, a killer.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

32. How can we get upset when we glorify multi-tasking?? We need to educate

the young that it is NOT OK to multi-task when driving an automobile...

It's really the fault of modern society when you think about it.

[Psephos]

59. This is a good point.

The multitask mindset is so deeply entrenched most never question it or imagine a better way.

[JI7]

63. there is nothing wrong with multitasking in itself , but you have to be an idiot to think

it means it's ok to do something else while driving.

[alp227]

29. Eat mold, Mr Mould! nt

[Odin2005]

37. Assholes suck!

:grr:

[Jokerman]

39. That is one messed-up headline.

A terrible tragedy of course but why does it matter that the victim was a soldier? Does that somehow make her life more valuable, or just more newsworthy?

I'll skip right over the fact that she obviously "survived" two tours of duty and ask why it matters that the distracted driver was on Facebook?

This is intended as criticism of the Daily Mail, not the O.P.

[ieoeja]

44. Irony. She survived war only to be accidently killed by an idiot shortly thereafter. n/t

[Jokerman]

71. There is NOTHING ironic in that headline or the story.

Irony:
the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

[JI7]

64. because it's a big thing she survived war to die over not someone rushing to get to hospital

to see dying relative or anything like that but over some idiot updating facebook.

[flamingdem]

48. The real question is how we can change people's habits with social media + driving

I think the fine should be extremely high.

[TwilightGardener]

51. What could possibly have been so important for this narcissistic fuckwad

to "update" on his Facebook page that he HAD to do it while operating a moving vehicle? What, did he "like" something? Wanted to let everyone know he was driving somewhere? Holy shit, people are so self-obsessed.

[flamingdem]

53. I drive less these days since the statistics are bad regarding accidents

from loopy people doing whatever in their cars, on their cell phones.

I think the fine should be as high as speeding. A $25 ticket is not enough to impact these narcissists who think the world revolves around their "updates".

[dipsydoodle]

72. UK Increases Texting While Driving Penalties to 14 Years Jail Time.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/09/uk-increases-te/

Texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to crash, research revealed yesterday.

Motorists who send messages spend some five seconds focusing on their phones - at 55mph enough time to cover the length of a football pitch.

That makes texting more dangerous than dialling a phone or simply reaching for a handset, which both raise the chances of an accident six-fold.

Rich Hanowski, who headed the £3.6million study, said: "Texting is in its own universe of risk."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/07/29/crash-txt-dummies-115875-21555088/

[kentauros]

67. I think one of the first things we need to do

is to teach driving skills instead of just "vehicle operation". A skilled driver is a safer driver because they tend to be more aware of their surroundings and are more respectful of the task at hand, i.e., driving!

And I agree on the fines for this kind of behavior being high. However, a fine really isn't enough. treat them like a DWI/DUI and suspend their license for a certain period of time. Take them off the roads and get it through their heads that it really is as dangerous as drunken driving.

[dipsydoodle]

70. Texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to crash

Texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to crash, research revealed yesterday.

Motorists who send messages spend some five seconds focusing on their phones - at 55mph enough time to cover the length of a football pitch.

That makes texting more dangerous than dialling a phone or simply reaching for a handset, which both raise the chances of an accident six-fold.

Rich Hanowski, who headed the £3.6million study, said: "Texting is in its own universe of risk."

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/09/uk-increases-te/

UK Increases Texting While Driving Penalties to 14 Years Jail Time.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/09/uk-increases-te/

[Hotler]

52. I can't drive anywhere or do anything unless I'm on my cell phone.

Sarcasm, one of the many services I offer.

[CrispyQ]

54. Worth repeating:

I sent this to everyone I know when it first came out. It should be the background screen on all cell phones. I'm joking - I think.

[tonekat]

60. Love that Cartoon, Agree with you. N/T

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

56. Takeaway: Death is closer than you think.

[callous taoboy]

69. A teacher at out school has her head in her i-phone constantly,

even while on playground duty, even though admin. has told us not to be on i-phones during times with students.