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Daddy bought a 17 year old son a Viper, totaled in less than a day, passenger dead

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Originally posted by: Boze
My uncle bought me a 1998 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 as a gradulation from high school present; I never even got a parking ticket in that car, much less any type of accident.

I'd also like to point out that a lot of people are making some pretty quick generalizations here... you don't know the kid's driving background, you don't know the reason he got into an accident... maybe he ran over something in the road and a tire blew out on him; most people don't know how to control a vehicle well enough (especially not a power vehicle like a Viper) to maintain control of it during that type of situation.

You people need to shut the hell up and wait until more details are released; if its determined that the kid was going entirely too fast, then I'll join in and we can all rail him for his stupidity. Before any of that happens though, make sure you send letters to the dead kid to be put on his grave that say, "You're just as stupid as everyone else involved in this because you didn't wear your seat beat." Seat belts save lives - WEAR YOURS ALWAYS, YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.
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Meh. First of all, a 3000GT VR-4 has nowhere near the potential danger of a Viper, and second, this kid was 17 - how much of a "driving history" could he have had that would qualify him to drive a Viper?

As I said above, it's certainly possible this was some routine accident that could just as easily have happened in a Civic, but given that it was a one-car accident that occurred within hours of the kid getting the car, I think it's likelier his speed exceeded his skills and what circumstances would permit.

I agree with you in terms of the seat belt, but it seems to me there's a big difference between the kids in the car and the father who bought the car - they were kids, as opposed to the father being a middle-aged man. I'm not calling for his head, but IMO it's more than likely he is partially responsible for what happened here.
 
Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
Maybe the kid was rich and spoiled, but guess what? Who here would have turned it down if their Mom and Dad offered to buy them a brand-new Viper for their 16th birthday? Yeah, that's what I thought.
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honestly? I would turn it down. Then again, I'm not spoiled, so that might have something to do with it. That and I know I'd kill myself in a viper.

 
We've all had friends or acquaintances who die because of stupid youth and cars. I had no fear about whipping my little CRX around backroads at up to 110mph while hammered and most kids today wouldn't either. A friend of mine growing up killed another friend in a car wreck in a goddamn Isuzu I-Mark.

Yes sh!t happens with kids and cars. Yes sh!t happens with cheap cars too. Everyone knows this. That's why, when junior is getting his first car, you get something cheap and slow and safe that you expect to be destroyed and you pray that he and his friends aren't destroyed with it. A 17 year old and a Viper is the punchline of a bad joke, not something you'd combine in your own household if you have a lick of sense.
 
Originally posted by: Specop 007
I'd say that school is probably filled with wealthy getting-money-from-daddy children. Most likely all of them have stuff way beyond what they need, should or even should think of having.
I love it when bad stuff happens to rich shallow people.
I laugh at this article.
HA!
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No, it's a small town school. I live in Des Moines. His dad owns a large local business. Dumb-ass family it seems. RIP.
 
K, if you have the urge to buy your kid an expensive car right away, I only have one word I can think of: Volvo. I mean seriously, I'm not about to stop someone from spending cash on their kids, but at least make sense about it.
 
Originally posted by: SampSon
Originally posted by: DonVito
Originally posted by: SampSon

Sure, though you don't know his situation. Chances are he is a very wealthy person, probably in the millions of dollars.

Being wealthy usually takes a lot of work. What if this father neglects his son because of business? Then throwing money at the sitaution would be his style of coping with it.
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Oh, I imagine you're right on all counts, but that doesn't, to me, excuse his negligence in buying his son such a blisteringly powerful, hard-to-tame car. There are any number of less-treacherous toys he might have bought his son if he were so inclined.

I imagine the father in this case is feeling terribly guilty right now, and appropriately so. I don't advocate his prosecution, like some others here, but IMO he must shoulder some significant guilt for his poor decision in buying his son a Viper of all things. Obviously it's possible this same accident would have happened even if his son had a mere mortal's car (say, a Civic), but there simply are not many current, street-legal cars that pose greater risk than a Viper.
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I'd have to agree with you on all points.
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I'm actually curious to know if the father really does feel any guilt for this... some ppl have an amazing ability to writing things off or ignore them and even if he does feel some remorse maybe it's more from fear of having his son prosecuted then for true remorse over the passenger's death... guess that's a negative view of ppl but you never know
 
Originally posted by: Strk
K, if you have the urge to buy your kid an expensive car right away, I only have one word I can think of: Volvo. I mean seriously, I'm not about to stop someone from spending cash on their kids, but at least make sense about it.
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100% agree!
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
A 17 year old and a Viper is the punchline of a bad joke, not something you'd combine in your own household if you have a lick of sense.
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LOL and exactly.
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yep. the father who purchased the viper for his son is solely the one to blame here. he'll have to live with this for the rest of his life.
 
Originally posted by: jagec
Originally posted by: Wadded Beef
well he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and in that kinda car with a young kid at the helm of a viper i'd be wearing my seatbelt along with a helmet lol
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I would just say "move over, I'm driving"😛
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hehe a much better idea 😀
 
I think that entire family needs to be removed from the population before he gives his 4-year-old daugher an H2 :disgust:

edit Okay, I just have to rant. Too many fvcking people are having everything handed to them w/out having to work one damn bit for it. You wanna tell me that 17- year old did something REMOTELY worthwhile to deserve a frickin' $80,000+ car?!?!?? He obviously doesn't have the tiniest sense of responsibility because he couldn't appreciate the power of that car in the least. Dumb@$$ probly floored it through a curve/turn and spun the sh!t out into a ditch. Young'uns these days have no appreciation for what it takes to get all of these finer things in life because their stupid rich @$$ parents hand it to them without a second thought. My Dad helped me buy my $2000 '93 Concorde grandpa car and I'm extremely grateful for it, but I pay for every damn thing on it along with everything else in my life as a college student. I appreciate nice cars, nice computers, nice clothes, nice restaurants, everything that I have to work my @$$ off for to get. And people like this get handed everything in life that I am going to be working a long time to get, then wrap it around a tree. That kid and his stupid father should be forced to live in poverty, with everyone spitting on him. Maybe that will give them some perspective and respect for life and everything in it
[/RANT]
 
First of all I love how this went from:

"17 yr wrecks new Viper, passenger dies"

to

"17 prick killed best friend when he gunned it in to a telephone pole, HE'S THE ONE that should have died, all people with money are stuck up elitist bastards and should be wiped from the face of the earth and the father should die in a vapor of super heated particles"

1. We still don't know that the father bought the car specifically for the kid. You are assuming he did because it would justify your hate for the rich. Well I'm gonna assume that the father bought his dream car and finally caved in to the pleading of his son to drive it.

2. Yes, odds are the kid was trying to do something he shouldn't have been doing when the wreck happened but the friend should have be wearing a seat-belt. The friend made that choice, not the driver.

3. Lots of people get cars when they are young. Some are poor, some are not. My best friend got a Honda Accord as his first car and totaled it within 5 months, then rolled a Mercury Cougar, and now drives an Expedition. I'd say he's lower middle-class. On the other end I know a girl that went through 2 4-Runners and a Lexus while she was 17. I'd say her family is lower-upper. Powerful cars don't make you a bad driver either. My little brother got an STi for his 15th birthday and he hasn't wrecked it yet. Money and the car don't make you a good or bad driver, you do.
 
Originally posted by: SithSolo1
First of all I love how this went from:

"17 yr wrecks new Viper, passenger dies"

to

"17 prick killed best friend when he gunned it in to a telephone pole, HE'S THE ONE that should have died, all people with money are stuck up elitist bastards and should be wiped from the face of the earth and the father should die in a vapor of super heated particles"

1. We still don't know that the father bought the car specifically for the kid. You are assuming he did because it would justify your hate for the rich. Well I'm gonna assume that the father bought his dream car and finally caved in to the pleading of his son to drive it.

2. Yes, odds are the kid was trying to do something he shouldn't have been doing when the wreck happened but the friend should have be wearing a seat-belt. The friend made that choice, not the driver.

3. Lots of people get cars when they are young. Some are poor, some are not. My best friend got a Honda Accord as his first car and totaled it within 5 months, then rolled a Mercury Cougar, and now drives an Expedition. I'd say he's lower middle-class. On the other end I know a girl that went through 2 4-Runners and a Lexus while she was 17. I'd say her family is lower-upper. Powerful cars don't make you a bad driver either. My little brother got an STi for his 15th birthday and he hasn't wrecked it yet. Money and the car don't make you a good or bad driver, you do.
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well thank you, genius, for pointing out the obvious. most people here know that it is the driver and not the car that dictates if the driver is good or bad. but having a car like the viper doesnt help a 17 year old brat be a good driver. would it have happened if the kid was driving a civic? it could, but the chances of it happening are smaller if it was a civic and not a viper.
 
Originally posted by: icepik
Sounds like a case of people having more money than sense. The daddy clearly has an ego problem. Probably didn't get any attention in school and had problems getting laid, etc. So now he's trying to relive his loser days through his kid and trying to make up for his own inadequacies by indulging his first born in a flashy motor-penis. But, hey... whatever gets you off.

I do feel bad for the passenger, though.
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So true.... I had a buddy whose dad did the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale.
 
Originally posted by: DonVito
Meh. First of all, a 3000GT VR-4 has nowhere near the potential danger of a Viper, and second, this kid was 17 - how much of a "driving history" could he have had that would qualify him to drive a Viper?

As I said above, it's certainly possible this was some routine accident that could just as easily have happened in a Civic, but given that it was a one-car accident that occurred within hours of the kid getting the car, I think it's likelier his speed exceeded his skills and what circumstances would permit.
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This does bring up an issue that I?ve always had with freshmen drivers and cars ? what class of car are they suited to drive?

As everyone has already mentioned in this thread, sports cars require some experience in order to maintain a level of safety. Even adults in the wrong circumstances are prone to error when driving a sports car, resulting in a crash.

In the state of Victoria (Australia), young drivers are restricted from driving cars with a power-to-weight ratio of 125KW per tonne (170HP per 2,200lbs).

In the state of Washington (US), young drivers are prohibited from driving with a passenger under the age of 20 for the first six months. After that, young drivers are prohibited from carrying more than three passengers under the age of 20 until they become 18.

A perfect example of a vehicle not meant for inexperienced drivers is my project S-10 truck. It uses an L83 Corvette block (350ci, 4 bolt mains), multi-point EFI, 1000CFM 4V manifold and a big MSD coil. It runs about 375HP and about 425ft/lb of torque. Even with all-wheel drive, it?s a squirrelly truck to drive. IMHO, nobody under the age of 21 should even be allowed to drive a vehicle with that much power no matter what the power-to-weight ratio is.
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Oops! I've maintained for a while that if you buy your child a powerful car you are an irresponsible parent. Tragic as this is, especially for the passenger, the father of this 17 year old has only himself to blame. It's so well documented that teenagers are bad fvcking drivers, the last thing you need is a testosterone laden 17 year old behind 500 horsepower.
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I couldn't agree more and is essentially what I was going to post as well.

High powered sports cars and teens do NOT mix.
 
Originally posted by: SithSolo1
First of all I love how this went from:

"17 yr wrecks new Viper, passenger dies"

to

"17 prick killed best friend when he gunned it in to a telephone pole, HE'S THE ONE that should have died, all people with money are stuck up elitist bastards and should be wiped from the face of the earth and the father should die in a vapor of super heated particles"

1. We still don't know that the father bought the car specifically for the kid. You are assuming he did because it would justify your hate for the rich. Well I'm gonna assume that the father bought his dream car and finally caved in to the pleading of his son to drive it.

2. Yes, odds are the kid was trying to do something he shouldn't have been doing when the wreck happened but the friend should have be wearing a seat-belt. The friend made that choice, not the driver.

3. Lots of people get cars when they are young. Some are poor, some are not. My best friend got a Honda Accord as his first car and totaled it within 5 months, then rolled a Mercury Cougar, and now drives an Expedition. I'd say he's lower middle-class. On the other end I know a girl that went through 2 4-Runners and a Lexus while she was 17. I'd say her family is lower-upper. Powerful cars don't make you a bad driver either. My little brother got an STi for his 15th birthday and he hasn't wrecked it yet. Money and the car don't make you a good or bad driver, you do.
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Your parents are stupid. A 15 year old has no business behind the wheel of a car with 300hp.

BTW-No, money and the car don't make you a good or bad driver but experience makes you a better driver or at the very least a responsible driver.
 
Originally posted by: Mill
Originally posted by: agentsmith101
I know this guy whose father bought him a bmw at the age of FIFTEEN...he didnt even know how to DRIVE yet...
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A BMW isn't a fvcking Viper, though unless we are talking M3, and even then...
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Very true....
 
I wonder how much time the dad spent with his son on provisional license? Or did the kid even go to driving school? If I had lots of money to spend, I'd send my kid to a driving school before even getting him a car.
 
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
I think that entire family needs to be removed from the population before he gives his 4-year-old daugher an H2 :disgust:

edit Okay, I just have to rant. Too many fvcking people are having everything handed to them w/out having to work one damn bit for it. You wanna tell me that 17- year old did something REMOTELY worthwhile to deserve a frickin' $80,000+ car?!?!?? He obviously doesn't have the tiniest sense of responsibility because he couldn't appreciate the power of that car in the least. Dumb@$$ probly floored it through a curve/turn and spun the sh!t out into a ditch. Young'uns these days have no appreciation for what it takes to get all of these finer things in life because their stupid rich @$$ parents hand it to them without a second thought. My Dad helped me buy my $2000 '93 Concorde grandpa car and I'm extremely grateful for it, but I pay for every damn thing on it along with everything else in my life as a college student. I appreciate nice cars, nice computers, nice clothes, nice restaurants, everything that I have to work my @$$ off for to get. And people like this get handed everything in life that I am going to be working a long time to get, then wrap it around a tree. That kid and his stupid father should be forced to live in poverty, with everyone spitting on him. Maybe that will give them some perspective and respect for life and everything in it
[/RANT]
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Wait wait, let me get this exactly right, people who make a lot of money shouldn't be allowed to purchase nice things for their children? Good idea, you should contact your local Congressman to see if he or she would be interested in making this into a law.
 
First off, I don't think the father should be buying his 17 year old kid a viper. I don't know the situation though so I can't judge that.

Second, it is recommended that people take special classes to learn how to handle these kinds of vehicles (supercars). If this kid did not have the proper training to use this vehicle, the father showed a serious lack of judgement in letting his kid drive the car.

Third, while it sucks that the kid died, it's his own fault. We have seatbelts for a reason. They don't guarantee you will live, but the chances you do walk away from an accident goes WAY up.

Finally, depending on the laws of the state, this kid could be charged with manslaughter. Where I live, if you are a driver under 18, you are responsible for everything that happens in the car. If your friend isn't wearing his seatbelt, you receive the fine and points. If your friend dies in an accident, you get the jailtime for not making sure he was secured in the vehicle.
 
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Your parents are stupid. A 15 year old has no business behind the wheel of a car with 300hp.

BTW-No, money and the car don't make you a good or bad driver but experience makes you a better driver or at the very least a responsible driver.
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True it might have a lot of horse power but it's probably the best handling car we own. My truck on the other hand will come around on you in a heart beat if you so much as tap the gas while turning. Come to think of it the viper is the same way, must be a Dodge thing.
 
Originally posted by: audi
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
I think that entire family needs to be removed from the population before he gives his 4-year-old daugher an H2 :disgust:

edit Okay, I just have to rant. Too many fvcking people are having everything handed to them w/out having to work one damn bit for it. You wanna tell me that 17- year old did something REMOTELY worthwhile to deserve a frickin' $80,000+ car?!?!?? He obviously doesn't have the tiniest sense of responsibility because he couldn't appreciate the power of that car in the least. Dumb@$$ probly floored it through a curve/turn and spun the sh!t out into a ditch. Young'uns these days have no appreciation for what it takes to get all of these finer things in life because their stupid rich @$$ parents hand it to them without a second thought. My Dad helped me buy my $2000 '93 Concorde grandpa car and I'm extremely grateful for it, but I pay for every damn thing on it along with everything else in my life as a college student. I appreciate nice cars, nice computers, nice clothes, nice restaurants, everything that I have to work my @$$ off for to get. And people like this get handed everything in life that I am going to be working a long time to get, then wrap it around a tree. That kid and his stupid father should be forced to live in poverty, with everyone spitting on him. Maybe that will give them some perspective and respect for life and everything in it
[/RANT]
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Wait wait, let me get this exactly right, people who make a lot of money shouldn't be allowed to purchase nice things for their children? Good idea, you should contact your local Congressman to see if he or she would be interested in making this into a law.
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so when you're rich you'll buy your 17 year old son a viper? good for you, hope you're in it when he drives it off a cliff. (O'Doyle Rules! O'Doyle Rules! O'Doyle Rules!...BOOM!)
 
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