In Memoriam Johnny Gaudreau & Matthew Gaudreau killed by drunk driver while cycling (MOD WARNING. No Flaming, Trolling, or Politics.)

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Been to a ton of sporting events and watched guys go up and down for beers all game long. I’m sure many are heading to their car as soon as the game is over, yet, I have never seen a check stop outside one of these events. Wonder why?

Society gives a lot of lip service to drinking and driving. That’s all it is, lip service. The penalties need to be extremely harsh, even when no one is injured.

Condolences to the Gaudreau family.
Most every bar I have seen has a parking lot. But only so all the designated drivers can get their friends home.
 
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I doubt this is possible given the money involved, but a one-year ban on any alcohol advertisements for broadcasts would be a nice gesture.
Imo that is over the line. Even if it doesn't seem to linger it does. If you are driving you should be the telling people you can't drink. I'm not perfect either but I might have a couple drinks (a hard line at one or two) at a restaurant and then make sure there is food I'm eating and an hour before I leave, with no drinking in that time. I've never been breathalyzed but I'm sure I'd pass.

But let's say I had over the limit and NEEDED to drive, like in some bizarre hypothetical. I would drive so conservatively. That's what's most alarming about this guy. He was very drunk AND driving like a madman. Just twisted behaviour. So for this guy he was a ticking bomb. He was going to kill someone one day.
 
To be fair, he seemed to think he was about to be processed for his bond and then released to go home and start working on his situation. If that had been the case, he wouldn’t have needed details on the program to help people who are locked up. He likely didn’t see the relevance of the judge’s comments.

Until the judge pointed out that it’s Labor Day weekend, which adds three days of jail time, plus the mandatory 72 hours. That’s a big curveball and his reaction seems pretty normal in context of finding out you’re about to spend 6 days in jail, not 6 hours.
He knows the deal. This isn’t his first rodeo. He’s had plenty of time to get his issues sorted before anyone got hurt. Now it’s too late. Don’t be so naive.
 
That’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about drunk driving, not people who’ve had a drink or two, i.e., they’ve had a couple drinks, but are under the legal blood alcohol limit. Don’t conflate the two.

We are talking about drinking and driving. And even when under the limit you can still be charged with a DUI.

As you stated “ No. Ordinary people don’t drink and drive. ”. When in fact ordinary people do drink and drive quite often.
 
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He knows the deal. This isn’t his first rodeo. He’s had plenty of time to get his issues sorted before anyone got hurt. Now it’s too late. Don’t be so naive.

Naive about what?

As you say, this is not the first time he’s been locked up for DUI so he knows how bail works. He was expecting it to happen immediately, and you can see the moment where it sinks in that he’s about to do a week in jail before he can even talk about posting bond. That’s not a minor inconvenience, obviously he’s going to have an unhappy reaction about it. What else would you have expected to see there?

Edit: to clarify, when I said “work on his situation” I mean his legal situation. If he were released that night he’d be able to go home, have easy access to a phone, arrange whatever financials are needed to hire a lawyer, start getting his legal case in order, find a place to hide from the media, and so forth. All of that is a lot harder to do from a jail cell, which is why the judge was telling him about support programs, which he did not understand until the moment in that clip.
 
Been to a ton of sporting events and watched guys go up and down for beers all game long. I’m sure many are heading to their car as soon as the game is over, yet, I have never seen a check stop outside one of these events. Wonder why?

Society gives a lot of lip service to drinking and driving. That’s all it is, lip service. The penalties need to be extremely harsh, even when no one is injured.

Condolences to the Gaudreau family.
Agree to an extent.

I was the front car in a 5 car collision on the highway leaving a game a few years back. Stop and go traffic and the cars behind me all missed the stop to a certain degree.

I was the "designated driver" in our group and had zero alcohol. Cops immediately breathalysed all the driver and 3 of the 4 other driver blew over the limit. No one was plastered but all had clearly had 3-5 beers.

The cop seemed more surprised that 2 of us didn't blow over the limit.
 
It's one of the worst stories I have ever heard. I don't think you could make something up that could be worse. I just feel horrible about the whole thing. I honestly don't know where I would even find the strength to go on. I am not a religious man but if there is a God, please let there be some solace for that family and look over them as they are truly in need of some help right now.

Life is short, and it isn't fair.
Whatever you get, you get,
But you deserved better.
RIP boys.
 
Is this really what have happened? Because if so then driver of the white suv is at fault here even more than Higgins. Because no way you can wander into the way of car that in the process of passing you. You are required to decrease speed and let other vehicle pass you, you should check your mirrors and blind spots before you signal left turn and before starting changing lanes. If the driver of white suv checked his mirror and saw Higgins’ car how he could just push his car into left late essentially cutting Higgins off?


It's really really easy to just pin all the blame on the drunk driver, and to be crystal clear he 100% deserves the blame for this. We don't know all the details in terms of how close the two sober cars were to each other and how far in advance the front car moved in front of the drunk driver.

But the police report does seem to indicate that the front car was moving quite a bit slower than the drunk driver, and was aware the drunk driver was trying to pass in the oncoming lane. The smarter thing to do was continue slowing down, let the drunk driver pass, then move around the bikers.

But it's very easy to just say it was the drunk drivers fault because he was drunk and that's blatantly bad. It's harder to say another sober driver who was doing what they thought was the safe thing for the bikers did something wrong. People love easy.

The drunk driver still deserves the vast majority of the blame and definitely deserves prison time, to be clear.
 
Went and found the actual clip. I want to believe his reaction is more to do with the slow realization of reality crashing around him because he does look distraught. Heavy emphasis on "want" because I just can't fathom he'd care so little about murdering two people.
You can't fathom but I certain can. Some guys simply drink because they enjoy it. Think of the "irresponsible" types back in high school. Not every drunk is some abused soul and even if they are, that doesn't mean they care about others' pain. Lawyers cook up spiels to help their clients but the masses seem to oblige themselves into believing every sob story.
 
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One thing is sure, athletes who make a lot of money, nhlers specifically, who have biked on the road will be thinking twice. You can bike on the road lawfully, but you’re putting your life at the hands of the driver. Just takes one bad decision by someone.

Being that this was at night, I’m wondering if the brothers were wearing any reflective gear or lights, that might be an angle for the defence.
 
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Stunning, terrible, tragic news. And just so preventable and unnecessary

My heart goes out to a family that was expecting this to be a time of joy, and now have to deal with a horrific loss. There are no words for that kind of grief, my god…
 

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