Update on Crash

[walkitout]

http://acton.patch.com/articles/19-year-old-male-chared-with-oui-in-prospect-street-accident

Yes: all the expected stereotypes apply.

RHI [ETA: R. asked me what RHI stands for and this may have contributed to the negative response by the abusive commenter. RHI = Rumor has it. I was repeating what I heard from someone who was at the plaza at the time of the accident, and who talked to other people who were at the plaza at the time of the accident. I don't know the people who told her this stuff, so I labeled it "rumor", altho I now understand RHI is not obviously "rumor" to every reader. My apologies. ] he walked away from the accident and the injury to the young woman involved a broken bone. Let's hope they all learned their lesson (something involving NOT speeding down a residential street -- hey, MY street -- in the dark and missing the curve).

However, googling "jacob victor acton ma" turned this up from a couple years ago:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/news/police_and_fire/x276659401/Acton-police-logs-April-30-edition

"Jacob Ross Victor, 17, of 10 Heather Hill Road, Acton, was arrested April 24 and charged with disorderly conduct."

So I guess I wouldn't be too optimistic.

ETA (after the abusive commenter showed up):

(1) I pulled that quote from a public source and the public source is named above it.
(2) The person in question is _not_ a child (they are now 19 years old).

ETA Yet again:

Here's what Offical Journalism Types Say About Naming a Minor:

http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=107

ETA: STILL MORE!

File this under, oh, for *'s sake:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/news/x313678869/Acton-police-logs-June-4-edition

"Jacob Ross Victor, 17, of 10 Heather Hill Road, Acton, was arrested May 25 and charged with shoplifting by concealing merchandise"

I didn't pull that off google; I went to wickedlocal and typed "Jacob Victor" into the search box. I'm going to quote something else from the site:

"The following are excerpts from the Acton public safety log for period May 25 through May 31. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty. If an individual listed is found not guilty, The Beacon will print that information here at the request of the individual and upon verification with the court or police."

Word to the wise.

ETA Jul 22 3:40 p.m. EDT:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/thisjustin/x121487976/Police-charge-man-in-Acton-car-crash

Looks like the turn-around time for him at Emerson was pretty short. "Parisi said the accident remains under investigation." The article describes booking and arraignment.

Comments

Injured woman

[rolandgo.livejournal.com]

There's a comment thread on one of the patch articles.
In that the woman's injuries are described as a trashed ankle.
That is entirely consistent with what happens to F1, Indy,
NASCAR and other racers in high speed accidents (like this one).
It suggest to me crushed bones, more than broken ones;
surgery involving bone paste, plates and pins; and acute
pain and chronic pain.

Good thing they chose such a well engineered car to act
so stupid in. She may learn.

[(Anonymous)]

You should think twice before posting. This is someone's son! This is someone's family. Don't make accusations or assumptions about someone you don't know. I pray for his family and for this child to find the correct path.

[(Anonymous)]

You are an ignorant ass.

I've unscreened a couple of abusive comments.

[walkitout]

Are you replying to walkitout or to rolandgo?

What happened was, objectively, stupid, at least according to some definitions of stupid:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stupid

I'm thinking of #2: Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.

We all agree that we would like to see the young people in question NOT repeat their error (single car accident on a dry road, reasonably well lit, involving multiple telephone poles). You say, "pray" and "find the correct path". I say "hope" and "NOT" "missing the curve".

I do not understand why you might think that rolandgo's observation that they picked a well-engineered car would make _him_ an ignorant ass, or why my pointing out that the young man in question has a history of poor judgment might make _me_ an ignorant ass. Certainly, we are ignorant of any details of the young people in question beyond what I pointed out in the public record.

I would like to point out that _every_ man is someone's son. Every person is someone's family. I'm not accusing anyone of anything -- I described something and I think I did it really quite neutrally.

You, on the other hand, called someone an "ignorant ass".

I'll just give into the temptation: I know you are, but what am I?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Looks as though he didn't learn from his friends' mistakes, either: http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/news/x1295942393#axzz1SnqkCGCK

didn't even occur to me to check a nickname

[walkitout]

Wow.

There might be some touchiness in town on the subject of telephone poles.

http://www.mydeathspace.com/article/2008/01/25/Juan_Casimiro_%2823%29_and_a_friend_were_killed_in_a_high_speed_accident

"The car then launched up a stone wall and went airborne over a driveway before slamming against a utility pole. ... The top portion of the pole was cracked in half on impact and pierced the passenger side of the car, which was on its side while the wires held the pole vertical."

That was over 3 years ago and involved a then 23 year old and then 18 year old.

The article ethelmay linked to refers to Danny McCarthy. The administration building on the school campus near where I live has "Danny's Place", which seems to be an extremely constructive response to the tragedy of McCarthy's death.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/news/x668804965

I knew about "Danny's Place", since I've spent some time standing by the entrance to it while doing the pickup drill for my son. My primary interaction with the young people who make use of it was a single conversation with a young man which I've not-quite-regretted ever since. (The young man was telling his friends that some other young man wasn't at school because he claimed he'd broken his hand punching someone or something. The young man retelling the story was openly skeptical of this, and I intruded on their conversation to explain how this was a very common but avoidable injury in the circumstances described. I refrained from supplying detailed instruction on good form but suggested they could learn from a martial arts instructor, on the general principle that martial arts instructors who teach kids usually do a good job instilling respect in same. But I'm not sure I should even have brought any of it up.)

"Danny, 16, was the sole passenger in the last vehicle, driven by another Acton-Boxborough junior, Ian Dennis. Shortly after leaving the McCarthy house, Dennis sped up, attempting to pass his friends' cars. Dennis's Acura Integra spun out of control, nearly splitting in half as it collided with a tree on Pope Road.

McCarthy suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead shortly afterward at Emerson Hospital. Dennis was airlifted to Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he recovered from his injuries. Police determined that drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the accident, but that speed and inexperience were."

I suppose all of this supports the "ignorant" part of the "ignorant ass" remark: I thought it took a special kind of bad judgment to engage in this kind of speeding. All this news coverage suggests that maybe it's not that special a kind of bad judgment at all.

I'm glad that Acton has taken steps to provide safe(r) activities for adolescents and young people in town. We have a skate park. There's Danny's Place. These are all helpful.

ETA Yet again: Contemporary coverage of the McCarthy/Dennis accident

http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x245537929

Loved ones avoiding an intervention?

[byrdie.livejournal.com]

It must be rather disturbing to see a stranger posting all of these publicly accessible details all in one place after the most recent incident. I suspect that if the driver's loved ones have mainly been standing back and praying rather than taking an active stand in his life, having a concerned third party do it might be prompting them to take another look at their own actions in relation to the drivers, which is probably highly uncomfortable.

At the same time, why should neighbors with small children wait to get upset until the driver kills someone?

For what good hoping and praying have done them so far, here's hoping that the driver's loved ones take a more assertive stand in getting this guy away from cars and alcohol, and towards some effective help. An intervention isn't comfortable and can provoke some resentment, but I'd hate for your family to lose a loved one just because another family couldn't sway one of their own.

Stay safe over there. Good grief.

[(Anonymous)]

you know... sometimes families do everything in their power ... and it isn't their fault at all. Not for lack of praying, interventions, efforts to secure outside services, discipline or anything else. Sometimes, the individual just doesn't respond to those efforts - or partially responds and then slips back into old patterns. There is only so much that others can do for a person - at some point the responsibility rests with the individual. Perhaps there are disabilities, organic or neurological issues. You cannot know. So maybe it would be best if people who don't know the parties involved stop speculating about his upbringing.

It would be so nice if the anonymous posters would include their names

[walkitout]

Most of this remark is on topic and it gives me an opportunity to address two specific issues with the anonymous commenters.

(1) Members of a community have an interest in enforcing group norms. One of our group norms is NOT SPEEDING and NOT DRINKING AND DRIVING and really not doing both of those, hitting a couple phone poles, etc. By naming-and-shaming someone who engages in violation of group norms, we communicate what the norms are and that we care about them and that we are prepared to hold violators accountable. That's what we're doing. We don't need to know about someone's upbringing or disabilities or wtf to enforce group norms. If you're wondering why I dragged prior arrests into it, well, those prior arrests were also violations of group norms and people with a pattern of violating group norms deserve more opprobrium than one-offs.

(2) We haven't been speculating about his upbringing. The anonymous commenters keep talking about upbringing. We're talking about an adult engaging in bad behavior and some of us are also proposing ways that this bad behavior could be addressed (adult learning from negative experience, jail time, family intervention, etc.).

So we don't need to stop speculating about his upbringing, because we weren't in the first place. If you're trying to get us to shut up about the event, this is a terrible way to do it; I only went looking for more police log events after the first commenter called me an ignorant ass -- I felt vindictive. I also really dislike stumbling across people who want to sweep bad behavior under the rug, and the anonymous posters have been sounding a lot like that. I don't think pretending this thing didn't happen will help the young man -- and I _know_ it won't address the public safety and property damage issues that led me to post in the first place.

Anonymous Comments Must Be Topical

[walkitout]

Just calling me names is going to get you deleted.

Friends may call me names while off topic. Not random strangers.

Oh, and as for the "not middle school" bit? Please. Middle school students aren't allowed to drive and are thus much less capable of violent damage to themselves and others.