Shitty teen driver, caused two innocent victims to lose legs, claims no wrongdoing

[121Traffic]

I was pretty ambivalent towards the girl before this article...she was just another crappy driver that decided that something other than driving safely was more important at the time. Sucks. But this article, she just tries to paint herself as another victim...someone who this just "happened" to. It makes me sick. This is the direct result of our "me me me" society...no responsibility for our actions. No apologies to the boys or their familes...no "sorry I did this", but only a shitty, cowardly "sorry it happened." No SHIT you're sorry it happened! Because it's your fault it happened! She even goes low, and implicitly blames the accident on the boys, saying they were not off to the side. Ummmm, let's see. You are receiving a citation for careless driving. Last I checked, the blame is SQUARELY on your shoulders, according to accident investigators. If you weren't doing anything wrong, and there was "nothing" you could do, you wouldn't be charged. So that makes the cops...what? Either incompetent or liars, right? BITCH!

My responses are in bold.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=65553

BERTHOUD – The 17-year-old girl facing charges in the car crash that took the legs of two teens says she considers what happened a horrible accident she wishes never would have happened. Know who I bet also wishes it would have never happened? The two kids who will never be able to leave their wheelchairs.


The Larimer County District Attorney's Office instructed the Colorado State Patrol to issue a summons to Michelle Berra for two counts of careless driving resulting in bodily injury.

The State Patrol says Berra was driving a Land Cruiser on January 15 when she hit Tyler Carron and Nikko Landeros as they were standing at the back of their Isuzu in the southbound lane of Larimer County Road 17 near Spartan Avenue.

Carron and Landeros had stopped to change a flat tire.

They were pinned between the two vehicles and eventually thrown into the northbound lanes. They were later airlifted to Denver Health Medical Center. Both boys were treated in the ICU. The severity of their injuries required the amputation of both boys’ legs, and they remained in the hospital for additional treatments until early February.

Berra says it was a very dark night and the boys were in the road, and not on the side of it. Let's take this statement at face value. Even if they weren't completely off the roadway (which I doubt they were just stalled in the middle of the lane), it is YOUR responsibility not to drive beyond your abilities...including not traveling too fast that you won't be able to stop in time for stationary obstacles in the roadway! Also, brakelight assemblies are one of the most reflective parts of a vehicle. In pitch black conditions, your headlights will cause the brakelight housing to reflect light hundreds upon hundreds of feet away...much further than the visible light pattern thrown out by your headlights. In fact, the brakelight reflectors will shine WELL before the vehicle itself is actually visible, and they are designed for that very reason. BUT, if your reaction time is too slow to take evasive action when something enters your headlight beams at 75mph, you had BETTER not drive at 75mph!

Berra says she went to help both Landeros and Carron after the accident. What is she now...some sort of Good Samaritan? She better have stopped, or face hit and run charges

“When I went over to Nikko he said, ‘Please help me, I’m cold, I don’t know what’s going on,” said Berra. “So I took off my jacket and I covered him with it, rubbing his back and trying to keep him warm. And he kept saying how he didn’t know what was going on and trying to look back at his legs. But I didn’t want to let him look, so I put the sleeve of my coat under his head and tried to keep his head down.”

Berra says she also told police what road they were on, using another person’s phone, to help emergency crews find them. Again, so what? Welcome to life as a responsible human being.

“One of the boys was holding Tyler’s head and one of the first responders asked him to go over to help with Nikko, so I took his place holding Tyler’s head, and I tried to keep him from rolling over while they were using the belts for tourniquets and things and they were trying to stop the bleeding,” she said.

Berra says she had Carron’s blood on her after he was taken away in an ambulance.

Carron, Landeros and Berra are all students at Berthoud High School. Berra is a senior.

Berra says she didn’t recognize Carron that night, but she did recognize Landeros. She says she knew them in school but was not close with them.

“About a week after it happened,” said Berra, “I was going back and forth between still thinking that I might wake up and that it might not have happened and then realizing it wasn’t just going to go away.” At least she was conscious...they were still in comas.

Berra says she was met with support by her friends and fellow students when she went back to school, about two weeks after the accident.

“The amount of support from them was overwhelming,” she said.

She says they told her “they understood it was just an accident, and it could have happened to anybody.” TAKE SOME FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY! You messed up, and your shitty driving has now permanently maimed two kids with their whole lives ahead of them. It DOESN'T happen to everybody...it happens to people who drive with their heads up their ass.

Berra says she has seen Landeros and Carron at school, but her attorney has told her not to talk to them.

“I wrote them cards (while they were in the hospital), just small things,” she said.

“At school I haven’t had any actual contact with them, but I’ve seen them in the hallways a few times. It’s hard because I can’t talk to them and I don’t know what they’re feeling towards me,” said Berra. “It’s just hard.”

She says if she could talk to them she would tell them “how sorry I am that it happened. I would never wish anything like that to happen to anybody. I’m sorry that I can’t make it better.” Again, how "sorry it happened"? Anyone remember Cynthia McKinney's "apology" after the assault on a police officer incident? Not "I'm sorry," but "I'm sorry it happened." It's the most cowardly, noncommittal statement there is.

“A lot of times I’ll start to think, ‘Maybe if this had happened, then we could have avoided it some how.’ Just little things, even things that happened a week before, that don’t make any sense, but I know that by thinking about it I’m not going to be able to change the fact that it happened,” said Berra.

“You hear about accidents on the news all the time and even though you know that they’re real and unless they happened to someone close to you, you feel detached from them like it couldn’t happen to you, but that’s not true, it could happen to anybody at any time,” she said. Again...99% of the time, accidents are caused by shitty driving. Guess what? You're the shitty driver here.

Careless driving resulting in bodily injury is a misdemeanor charge. The Larimer County DA’s Office says two counts could bring 10 days to 1 year in jail, a $100 to $1,000 fine, probation and/or community service.

The DA’s office says State Patrol may issue the summons on Wednesday.

When asked what she would say to other young drivers about the accident Berra said, “Don’t ever do something assuming that nothing will happen to you because even at times when you’re not doing anything wrong, something bad can happen. And by being careless in any way, you can just increase that chance.”You WERE doing something wrong! Piloting a 3 ton deadly weapon beyond your crappy 2 years of driving experience abilities! TAKE SOME FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY!

[countybear]

Man, I feel ya on this one.

In everything this kid is saying, she is seperating herself from the causation of this incident and attempting to vindicate herself by emphasizing her proper response to the effects. She aligns herself as one of the victims, rather than taking responsibility for being the cause.

In 11 years, I have NEVER had someone who caused a crash simply say.. "I am just a bad driver". Its hard enough to even get most to admit they screwed up. This is a point that I have made time and time again on crash scenes though, clearly predominant fault is an easily determinable factor in 99% of the crashes we work, the other 1% is primarily where fault has to be shared equally with both drivers.

It is easy to become 'warm and fuzzy' and write this off as a 'senseless tragedy'. What is perhaps most tragic, is that rather than publicizing the mistakes made which caused the crash, the media will solicit sympathy for the offender. In doing so, the only positive which could possibly come out of this -- a lesson to drivers to be more responsible -- is placated.

It is also easy to objectively say that the errant driver, being a young person especially, is responding through a psychological defense mechanism which causes her to literally believe that the crash was unavoidable. However, it is important here to admit that lack of intent does not vacate complicity. Her negligence caused the crash, that much is obvious.

Seeing the situation though a cop's perspective though, it is PRECISELY that 'unavoidable tragedy/victimization' thought process which CAUSES the frequency and severity of these incidents. Failures in accountability and abandonment of personal responsibility are the primary enemies of criminal law.

[Jenna]

Cars should be banned!

[Piggybank Cop]

1% are accidents, the other 99% are crashes.

[Ducky]

Her lawyers are probably telling her to admit no guilt, etc. But yeah, it would be refreshing for someone to day "yeah, I screwed up and I'm sorry" but I'm not going to hold my breath for that to happen.

[KaiGywer]

Tragic accident, but like others have said...she should have driven to her abilities and seen the car on the side of the road.

[Willowdared]

Cars should be banned!

Wow Jenna, what a deeply profound response to a horrible accident.

NOT

[Rhino]

Are any of us cops really surprised? How many wrecks have we worked where the at-fault driver tells us it wasn't their fault?

I worked one yesterday where Driver 1 told me, after she pulled out in front of another car and caused them to hit her, tried to tell me it was the other driver's fault. For going down the highway, I guess.

[BabyGirl]

Are any of us cops really surprised? How many wrecks have we worked where the at-fault driver tells us it wasn't their fault?

I worked one yesterday where Driver 1 told me, after she pulled out in front of another car and caused them to hit her, tried to tell me it was the other driver's fault. For going down the highway, I guess.

My sister in law told me the same story about the same exact thing that happened to her. Not believing her though. She's been quite the story teller lately, and not trusting cops anymore for not believeing her.

[Rhino]

My sister in law told me the same story about the same exact thing that happened to her. Not believing her though. She's been quite the story teller lately, and not trusting cops anymore for not believeing her.

I have a simple layman's formula I use when working a wreck. Simply look at each driver and ask yourself "What could this driver have done differently to avoid the wreck?" Obviously leaving out the ability to foresee the future, if the answer is "nothing", then the other person's at fault.

[BabyGirl]

I have a simple layman's formula I use when working a wreck. Simply look at each driver and ask yourself "What could this driver have done differently to avoid the wreck?" Obviously leaving out the ability to foresee the future, if the answer is "nothing", then the other person's at fault.

I agree. She is blaming someone else for her mistake of pulling out into the road without making sure it was safe to do so. Thankfully, no one was hurt and it was only damage to the cars.

[countybear]

I have a simple layman's formula I use when working a wreck. Simply look at each driver and ask yourself "What could this driver have done differently to avoid the wreck?" Obviously leaving out the ability to foresee the future, if the answer is "nothing", then the other person's at fault.

We have an FTO who routinely asks his trainees to examine the vehicles and roadway without speaking to the drivers at all, and determine fault from the physical evidence alone. He then 'grades' their responses, pointing out any errors in their hypothesis. I find that training method works very well.

I'll often give both drivers statement forms, without even asking them how the crash occurred verbally. I find that more often than not, the drivers are elusive in their summation of the crash when questioned directly, and unreliable. The physical evidence is always much more telling to me, and never lies.

[BEB]

I failed to yield a couple years ago. Said it was my fault to the first responders. Even as I said it I hear my insurance rate going up. Luckily that didn't happen, much.

I know the gal was going at least 30 over the speed limit on that section of road. No doubt in my mind - I've tried recreating the scenario at 30 over in my pickup vs her sports car and its still no problem to slow in time. I know I caused the accident, I just wanted to know how she completed it.

Me trying over and over to figure out how she lost control doesn't change my fault for causing it. Luckily only a Dodge was killed, everyone else walked away.

[slick628]

I saw her interview this morning on TV while drinking my cup of coffee....this girl is a friggin joke. She pisses me off so much, I'm pretty much at the point where it's best just not to comment.