Why Is This Peer Trying To Blame Anyone His Own Stupidity?

[DangerUXD]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21783467
Surely having a crash whilst texting is a pretty standard case of dangerous driving.

[Peter Pedant]

.

lots of people say I didnt really do it - so I suppose members of the House of Lords are not immune to this.

and the other thing is that I suppose he didnt expect Urdu tel to make it onto the English global media. I mean how many other stories in the last year have originated there ?

[ChillDoubt]

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1224979.html

[jake-the-peg]

Actually it's not a standard case at all

You'll notice he wasn't charged with causing death by dangerous driving and the papers are being very careful to say in which his car was involved

This got my interest up because obviously if you're texting while driving and hit and kill an innocent bystander it's a pretty open and shut case of Causing death by...

This on the incident ffrom wikipedia

//On 25 December 2007, Lord Ahmed was involved a crash on the M1 motorway near Rotherham in which Martin Gombar, 28, was killed. Mr Gombar's car had been involved in a crash and he had left it in the outer lane. Apparently trying to return to his vehicle from the hard shoulder he was hit by Lord Ahmed, who was driving his Jaguar X-Type. Lord Ahmed's wife and mother, who were passengers in the car, also received minor injuries.//


So it sounds as if he hit someone who was running around on the motorway

Now that's certainly not excusing him but it's not a 'standard case', I can quite imagine that many average drivers paying full attention might have killed someone in those circumstances.

Running from the hard shoulder to your car in the outside lane is a pretty dangerous thing to do

[alidoc]

Whatever the circumstances there are no excuses for texting if driving.

[FredPuli43]

He pleaded guilty. His complaint is that he got jailed at all; he got 12 weeks; as a result of, he says, a Jewish media conspiracy aided by a judge who was carefully selected for the purpose. The Court of Appeal said such a sentence was entirely appropriate but they would suspend it so that Ahmed's work in 'building bridges' between Muslims and others was not impeded.

[rojash]

"His complaint is that he got jailed at all"

As I understand it, his complaint was not that he got jailed, but that his case was elevated to a higher court. As it turned out, the higher court gave him a sentence that was within the sentencing capabilities of the lower court.

[sandyRoe]

This 'building bridges between faith communities' does that include the Jewish Community?

[jake-the-peg]

Well let's face it Ahmed does seem a teensy bit paranoid

After 9/11 he claimed the Government was tapping his phone after he opposed intervention in Afghanistan.

But perhaps he has good cause

People still think he offered a bounty of Tony Blair and George Bushes head after he was misquoted.

They remember the charge but not the video footage showing that was not the case and subsequent retraction

[emmie]

article in the Independent

In 2009 he was jailed for 12 weeks for dangerous driving after sending and receiving text messages minutes before his car crashed into a stationary vehicle on the M1 near Sheffield on Christmas Day 2007.

He was freed by the Court of Appeal after serving only 16 days of his prison sentence and saying he had “learnt the hard way” about the problem of texting and driving.

[youngmafbog]

He should have lied and said his wife was driving.

[emmie]

where does it say the poor man that was killed was running around, if you read any number of news reports, out in 16 days, the price of a life, not really.

[emmie]

perhaps she can't drive..

[bazwillrun]

"You'll notice he wasn't charged with causing death by dangerous driving "

If you do some research you will find they couldnt prove 100% that he was texting at the actual time of the accident (they couldnt pinpoint the exact time of the accident accurately enough) where he killed someone.
there were texts "around" the time, hence the reduced charges.

[emmie]

maybe so, but no matter how this looks he killed someone through dangerous driving, Chris Huhne and his ex just got eight months for swapping penalty points, do you see what i mean ?

[bazwillrun]

no, they got prison sentences for perjury not for swapping points.

[emmie]

ok i do know that, i just meant that they both got eight months, whereas this man spent 16 days in jail for killing someone by his dangerous driving...

[FredPuli43]

Quite. The Deputy Judge (or possibly bench, most likely a Deputy Judge) in the Magistrates' court, sent the case up to Crown Court because it was patently one that merited more than 6 months' imprisonment. The man only got 3. He should count himself lucky he didn't get 6 months or more.