Guestblogger Arthur Goldwag is the author of "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more" and other books.
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I take it that the striped part isn't another lane to get into? And the whole lane was covered with water?
I've used the old "the kids wanted me to splash them" line with Chris Hansen. Trust me, it doesn't work.
Ah yes, the Chewbacca defense
I splashed some kids in exactly this way when I was about 20. I got a phone call from a police officer warning me not
to do it again because of the risk of losing control of the car.
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
... The original text from the YT upload(sic)...
"A rainy afternoon in Plymouth (bottom of Weston Mill Hill). Huge puddle. Me driving, my man recording... drowned a bunch of school kids at the bus stop... was so good in fact, that we turnt around and done it again!!!”
*sigh* another win for English teaching in England.
If this happened near Bath nobody would've batted an eye.
I could see how this could cause a hydroplaning tragedy. Besides, when I was a kid, we splashed in our own damn puddles. We didn't have fancy motorcars to do it for us.
I saw this yesterday and thought, 'What a jerk, yeah give him a ticket'
But if the kids asked for it well, probably not the best decision but she does have a point. Where is the fun anymore
Sue the town for poorly engineered/inadequately drained roadway creating unsafe conditions? I'm sure it happens every time it rains, putting thousands of motorists at risk.
Only in Britain.
Come on guys, lighten up.
Love, Canada.
She's videotaping it AND driving on the wrong side of the road! She's a maniac!! ;)
The courts (both of the legal and public opinion variety) have upheld time and time again that there are certain actions which minors are unable to consent to have performed on them. How should the kids be able to consent to this, when the car could've thrown up a rock or hydroplaned into the kids, when they are legally unable to consent to safe sex?
Gutter water has got to be full of germs and motor oil. This woman needs to be made an example of.
Come on, did you see how those kids were dressed? They wouldn't have been in raingear if they weren't planning on getting wet. They totally wanted it!
Is it me, or is she FLYIN' down that road?
Looks like fun to me! Stop Britain from taking the magic out of childhood!
"The courts (both of the legal and public opinion variety) have upheld time and time again that there are certain actions which minors are unable to consent to have performed on them. How should the kids be able to consent to this, when the car could've thrown up a rock or hydroplaned into the kids, when they are legally unable to consent to safe sex?"
Ugh. This argument could keep kids from participating in most sport: Backyard football, pick-up basketball games, stick-ball, whatever.
That's called living in UK...
You need to have at least an umbrella at all times and a handy bookmark to MetOffice web page for alerts.
The lesson here is: People who don't own a car aren't worthy of staying dry.
Think about it. The driver (in the video) would have found it much less humorous if the kids had instead been lobbing water balloons in his open window.
I bike to/from work even when it's raining. More then once, I have heard the "woot" before a car intentionally swerved into a puddle to cover me with water. If I am heading home, I can usually shake it off as a harmless joke, but when it happens on the way to work... well, let's just say that it's extremely annoying.
"Being charged" implies some sort of criminal charge. Being a lawyer (if not terribly familiar with the British legal system), I am hard pressed to point to the criminal activity here. Civil liability, fine, but criminal prosecution? What's the crime?
tsk. Carlos must be spinning in his... whatever the hell that is.
Oh, life is no fun anymore…lets go risk someone’s life for kicks!!!
If the children asked to have this done then obviously they are not old enough to understand the risk.
That is why they have parents.
I wonder if the parents would like a speeding car in a puddle this close to their children?
Funny - this sound's exact like my almost-four-year-old. Not the kids, but the driver. Everytime she - my kid - bites or pushes her little brother, her excuse is "He asked me to do it." Of course, he didn't.
@Ingmar
The highway code which defines most of the rules of the road (in conjunction with various road traffic acts) in the UK is online at direct.gov.uk
The key bit here is section 144
To quote:
Section 144
You MUST NOT:
* drive dangerously
* drive without due care and attention
* drive without reasonable consideration for other road users
[Law RTA 1988 sects 2 & 3 as amended by RTA 1991]
As far as the law is concerned pedestrians, even when they are on a path are "road users", since with one step they can very quickly be in you way.
I only learnt to drive this year and my instructor made a point of mentioning this sort of thing, it's something that many people are not aware of.
In this case I suspect it will come down entirely to whether they can demonstrate that the kids really did ask for it. If they did, then I suspect she'll get of with a slap of the wrist. If not then it's rather more serious.
Besides, if she is concentrating on splashing the kids, then she isn't paying "due care and attention" to the road and other people, especially near a bus-stop where there are likely to be plenty of pedestrians wondering around.
I'd be surprised if this sort of behaviour wasn't frowned upon in most countries with well developed driving laws, it's not just us brits.
And really, if you want to play games, don't do it with a ton and a half of steel in a built up area.
17-Year-old hydroplanes into a bus stop in Queens, injures 7.
http://gothamist.com/2009/10/08/why_did_the_car_crash_into_bus_stop.php
At the risk of being accused of the internet felony of using an "old meme"...I see what you did there.
And I like it!
"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
Let me guess, there was background music?
YOU! YES YOU! STAND STILL LADDIE!
??
At which point, exactly, did the kids give their consent? Er, 'ask them to'?
Allow me to suggest the actions shown in the video, that is, "*chortle* Brilliant!" suggest that in fact, the couple ARE 'serial splashers'.
And, furthermore, first class jerks.
My first response is to want to punch them, but on reflection, I'd sentence them to serial splashing.
See how 'fun' they think THAT is.
someone put all the videos up on happysplashing.com
its funny, as long as noone gets hurt
"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."
Then...it's still fun but you just can't see it!