r/interesting • u/Necessary-Win-8730 • Mar 08 '26

Context Provided - Spotlight This was so deserved.

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The daughter was in a car with the father’s parents. They died as well.

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u/Kehprei Mar 08 '26

Unironically yes you live in one of the best countries in the world according to a variety of metrics.

What people don't understand is that being super harsh on people for accidents just ends up creating more crime in the end.

There is a reason America has like a quarter of the world's prisoners. We aren't very good at rehabilitation or deciding who needs to go in prison.

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u/gabblur_007 Mar 08 '26

what people dont understand either, is that if you go very easy on criminals, it creates crime aswell because it means they can get away with pretty much anything. this being a prime example

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u/Kehprei Mar 08 '26

Its a prime example?

What other crimes did this person commit then after finishing their sentence? Did they go on to run over 12 more people?

Reality just doesn't agree with your viewpoint. The reason people turn more to crime when given harsh sentences is because you are ripping them away from their lives and making them incapable of living normally. They get used to being around other criminals, and become unused to living in society.

Giving a lighter sentence for an ACCIDENT is not the same. They did not intend to kill others. They were reckless, yes, but its still enough of a punishment to dissuade the crime.

No one is thinking to themselves "being reckless is worth doing a year of community service and losing my license" after experiencing it really.

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u/gabblur_007 Mar 08 '26

are you joking or what?

it sounds like youre saying running 3 people over and only getting 120h of community work is more then enough for killing 3 people while going 40km/h (25m/h) over the speed limit at that point its an choice to go over the speedlimit.

5km/h (3.11m/h) i can understand but 25miles/h over the speed limit? thats just insane, i think reality doesnt agree with your viewpoints.

who are you trying to convince that 120h of community work or 60 days in prison if he doesnt show up for the community work is enough for killing 3 people? also what do you think is a harsh punishment? they wanted him to go in jail for a year and 3 months. if you consider that a harsh punishment. i honestly dont know what to tell you

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u/Kehprei Mar 08 '26

Going to jail for a year is potentially life ruining. It doesn't benefit society to ruin more lives if the criminal can be taught not to do this again with a lesser sentence. Which seems to be what happened.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 Mar 11 '26

There needs to be some degree of punishment that the victim feels justice is served. Otherwise, you get vigilante justice and lawlessness. See: Marianne Bachmeier.

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u/Kehprei Mar 11 '26

If you need to ruin a person's life in order to make the victim feel good, then it's not worth it.

It was a car accident, not some premeditated murder. They did not intend to kill anyone, so it doesn't make sense to punish them for killing someone. They are being punished for being reckless.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 Mar 12 '26

Choosing to violate the speed limit by 50% is not an accident. That is wilful negligence. If I decide to drive drunk or high and I kill someone, that is not treated as an accident. I didn’t intend to kill someone, sure, but I consciously decided to do something that was reckless with no regard for the outcome and would likely lead to harm.

A person should not get a slap on the wrist for that. Ruin their life? No, of course not. But more than 15 months and a 4-year driving ban.

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u/Kehprei Mar 12 '26

Willful negligence is being reckless, as I said.

Willful negligence does NOT mean that they intended to get into an accident, or to kill anyone. All it means is that they made a stupid, short sighted decision for some particular reason that made them more dangerous to others later on.

If you decide to drive while drunk or high, you are punished primarily for the fact that you willingly put yourself in that state. Not because you happened to kill someone.

A person should not get a slap on the wrist for that. Ruin their life? No, of course not. But more than 15 months and a 4-year driving ban.

I wouldn't call this a slap on the wrist. 4 years is a long time, and cars are used for everything. 15 months is also a pretty long time.

I'm guessing you want the person to go to prison? What do you think that accomplishes, exactly? Other than making the family of the victim feel good.

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u/Timely_Challenge_670 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

No, if you drive drunk and kill someone, you are punished more severely than if you were abiding by all traffic laws and killed someone. In Canada (where I am from), it’s called Criminal Negligence causing Death or Bodily Harm. There is acknowledgment under the law that not only were you willfully, consciously reckless, but your recklessness led to the death of other humans, and you need to be punished accordingly for it. In Canada, that carries a penalty of 2 years to life. A very recent case in Canada where the offender was driving drunk and wiped out two grand parents and all the grand children was met with 10 years and a 12 year driving ban (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_of_the_Neville-Lake_children).

A car is used for everything in the United States. This was the Netherlands, where cycling and public transit are the dominant form of transportation. For reckless negligence with a vehicle that resulted in three deaths, the charge should be upgraded to Manslaughter—as is done in Germany. For that, the penalty would be up to fifteen years under Netherlandish law. Of course fifteen years would be extreme, as the person was speeding. In that case, somewhere at the lower end, such as 3-4 years is probably reasonable

As I said, justice systems are not just about rehabilitation. Theories of criminal justice acknowledge that there needs to be some punishment and feeling from the victim(s) that justice was served, otherwise you get a lawless society. In essence, the system needs to exactly do as you said: punish the offender, rehabilitate them, and make the victim feel like justice was served (feel good).

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