http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... sh_accusedRead through link first!
I have pasted below .. but read the whole through first all the same.
I draw likeness to personal experience below. As MEDIC .. Junior-ish one at the time.
Sorry.
I have zero sympathy here.
He was allegedly looking at a lap top per the CPS/press.
He tried to claim the family hit the lorry in front of them before he he hit them.
Sorry. But .. Even if the family had hit the other car... he still hit the rear here.
What seems to be the case is that his collision was so hard that it pushed them beneath the lorry in front.
How do I know?
Well.. He says it happened very quickly. His mind will be in denial. He will try to make sense of it. I do understand this. No one decent person (and he will be a decent person) can bear to think they caused so much harm.. death. A decent person cannot contemplate the unthinkable. They deny. go into denial.
Some bombastically ciam .. NO COMPASSION.
No. They are faced with something so AWFUL that they cannot admit to selves that they may have done that.
I lived through one nightmare when I nearly lost my wife who means so much to me.
In the case I observed at first hand in 1984 ish
I was working as a middle rank medic - houseman - about three quarter way up career ladder - in Lancs A&E. Actually Chorley.
Case came in. Red alert procedure. A right major.
Multiple crunch - where M61 meets M6. (M65 did not exist at the time)
Family were on half term day trip break to Blackpool. They were found .. crushed beneath a lorry. The tanker which collided on the approach to M6 .. on that curve.. pushed them beneath a lorry.. Other cars struck all this. This family were discovered when the debris was being cleared.
They were.. not identifiable. Squashed flat. I have never ever .. ever seen anything or heard of anything come into any A&E quite like that one of the mid 80s.
I find it a little difficult to accept his defence on the basis of being present when the above case was dealt with by Chorley A&E and Preston A&E as nearest hospitals to the scene.
This case mirrors that case. The boys were aged 7 and 9 years. Were with Aunt and Uncle. Parents (devoutly Christian) were completely devastated to the core. Tanker driver who caused all that .. he also died in the fireball which ensued .. others died after many hours in ICU. None would not have survived .. had it happened today by the way. We may have made advances but we cannot cure near cremation all the same.
MEN wrote:
Tears of M6 crash accused
February 13, 2009
A LORRY driver sobbed in the witness box as he gave evidence about a motorway crash in which a family of six were killed.
Paulo Jorge Nogueira da Silva, 46, denied using a laptop while driving along the M6.
Prosecutors say da Silva was not paying attention to the road and his 40-tonne Daf truck crashed into a Toyota people carrier, killing David and Michelle Statham, of Llandudno, North Wales, and their four children.
Da Silva denies six counts of causing death by dangerous driving. His defence claims the Stathams had collided with a Volvo truck three-quarters of a second before they were hit by his lorry.
Sorry.. What happened to one second to two second gap?
I understand from one other account that like my own wife that time ..
they were the last in queue before being struckSorry .. but there is plenty in this case which I can say I have extremely violently and very personally painful memories here.
I am being
I know this .. being guilty of subjectiveness here. I will not at all be offended if someone supports the Portuguese driver.. whose legal team try to mitigate. I am well aware that driver is suffering dreadfully even though I am not posting support of him. He has to defend .. He cannot be shown to have remorse yet .. as to do so means coming across as guilty as charged.
I do not think dangerous. He was careless or negligently inconsiderate perhaps.
Quote:
Giving evidence in Portuguese through an interpreter at Chester Crown Court, da Silva said: "There was a stage at which the (Toyota) got close to the lorry ahead of it and braked.
"The Toyota braked instantly but it was too close to the lorry.
"When I saw the car braking I braked as well but it was too late.
"I used my maximum strength to brake. Everything happened so suddenly - the car exploded."
Asked by Oliver Jarvis, defending, how great was the impact, da Silva said: "It was strong, very strong."
He said he jumped out of the cab of his lorry and got a fire extinguisher, but was unable to put out the flames. Da Silva cried as he told the jury he felt scared and shocked to learn that six people had been inside the Toyota.
He said: "That such people have died, I wasn't able to understand it."
Sadly .. I know and whilst I cannot help but think he paid more attention to his lap top as alleged by the CPS - I can also fully comprehend his sheer bewilderment at the sheer awfulness at this incident. As a human being.
As a driver who never in a recurringly awful nightmare could have envisaged his situation.
I think why I like the current THINK! advert...
Quote:
Questioned by Mr Jarvis, he said he believed there had been two impacts involving the Toyota and denied using his laptop while on the road.
He said: "I never have my laptop on when I am driving."
OK. I may be going off the initial report here.
But surely forensics? Analysis of all drives on the laptop?
But even if she hit the other lorry in a crawl. the vehicle behind is still keeping a distance?
OK. I am being subjective. I leave a gap. My wife does. Folk out there must think we are stupid after what tore our then young family apart?
No. We do as originally taught .. leave a safety margin always. We did then. We do now. Nothing could have prevented or saved my wife that day. I am just eternally thankful she still annoys me with her strong personality.
He still struck in the rear end all the same. WHY?
Quote:
Chef Mr Statham, 38, and his 33-year-old wife were returning home with the children after visiting family in Birmingham when the crash happened at 10.35pm on October 20.
The couple, who had been together for 19 years, died at the scene along with sons Reece, 13, Jay, nine, and Mason, 20 months, and 10-week-old baby daughter Ellouise.
Cross-examined by Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, da Silva, who is Portuguese but lives in Spain, told the jury he understood the matrix signs on the motorway which warned drivers of queuing traffic and temporary speed restrictions.
Proceeding
It's a sad tale. I am trying hard to be fair to the driver. I am struggling to do so all the same and I feel that my experience as a fairly young medic plus my own personal are influencing me to be less favourable to this driver.
So.. I want fairness for this driver. I believe he really feels truly awful... and he has to mitigate his case to best outcome for himself .. and yet that family requires justice given his defence,
I cannot see his defence as he is playing it here..
I can see and understand his remorse.. bewilderment .. folornness.
I can at least have compassion for this driver. He did not ever seek to kill
Not easy decision for any jury given a decent man in essence..
And this snaps us back really to
was he careless for a second?
Was he negligent?
This serious incident has nowt to do with speed .. but all to do with lack of COAST in every aspect really
It has to do with observation and consideration primarily.
Should he be jailed for 14 years in revenge though?
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Members
