Clear Example That Videogames Are Dangerous... ...on the road

[cruxbucket 0]

there are safe ways of racing and anybody can go to a track and pay to race whatever they have. they were breaking the law and they knew it. i tack it up to cocky 18 yrs old boys trying to prove their men by doing something dangerous.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

Here's an update of the story:

Two charged in crash get bail

Luxury cars were allegedly in street race that ended in death of Toronto taxi driver

Jan. 31, 2006. 08:12 PM

CANADIAN PRESS

 

Two teenage friends were each released on $50,000 bail Tuesday following an alleged street race between luxury cars that ended in the death of a city taxi driver.

 

Their release is subject to a half-dozen conditions, including that they turn over all travel documents and that neither take the wheel of a car.

 

Tahir Khan, a Pakistani immigrant who was working to bring his wife to Canada, was just days away from becoming a Canadian citizen when he was killed Tuesday night.

 

The two teens, former classmates at a prestigious Ontario private school, were allegedly racing Mercedes Benzes in one of the cityâs wealthiest neighbourhoods just moments before one of the cars struck Khanâs taxi.

 

Wang-Piao Dumani Ross and Alexander Ryazanov, both 18, face charges of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

 

Ross has also been charged with failing to stop after an accident causing death.

 

Both teens left the courthouse with their families early Tuesday evening and declined to comment. They are to return to court Feb. 23.

 

Rossâs lawyer, Morris Manning, said he was pleased by the ruling.

 

âOf course, we appreciate someone died here,â he said outside court. âWhat caused the accident and how it occurred have yet to be determined.â

 

There is a publication ban on any evidence entered during the bail hearing.

 

The teens spent the weekend in jail, which Manning said was an ordeal for his client.

 

âHeâs dealt with that as one might expect an 18-year-old who has never been in jail to deal with it. Itâs been very difficult, very difficult.â

 

The teens, who are now both university students in Toronto, are also required to live with their parents and follow their house rules, attend school and notify the police of a change of address. They are also forbidden from associating with each other â unless their lawyers are present â and from travelling outside the province.

 

Crown prosecutor Domenic Basile said outside court that freeing them would âshock the sensibility or the conscience of the community.â

 

Witnesses have told police the two Mercedes were travelling at speeds upwards of 140 kilometres an hour in the 50-kilometre zone.

 

The force of the crash folded Khanâs taxi around a utility pole.

 

Police also found a copy of the popular video game Need for Speed in the front seat of the car that struck the cab.

 

Khan, who came to Canada six years ago, was to be sworn in as a Canadian citizen in a ceremony last Friday. He was hoping his wife could eventually join him in Toronto.

 

A taxi driver who didnât know Khan but said he attended Tuesdayâs hearing out of sympathy for the driver was disappointed by the teensâ release.

 

âJustice has not been served,â said Sajid Mughal who, like Khan, immigrated to Canada from Pakistan.

 

A memorial fund has been established through the CIBC, and donations can be made at any branch by citing transit number 00402 and account number 2168332.

 

Source: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

IMO, as they said, Justice was NOT served.

 

xboxrulz

[abhiram 0]

IMO, as they said, Justice was NOT served.

Dang right it wasn't. But that's how these things go. Maybe a year or so in jail would have taught them a thing or two.

[marretas 0]

what can we do ... cases like this its not new, in japan boys jumped from builings trying to fly like, Songoku lol, the problem is that they wasn't able to fly and they could watch the floor from a little closer view. Its sad, but dont blaim computers games and cartoos for things that only stupid people does. I watch entire serie of dragonball's and i didn't throw my self from a builing. Pff this is very lame stuff. . But in cases like this one i'm feelings for the taxi driver, for to boys i say F**k them.

[Vicious_AD 0]

The way I see it, video games aren't dangerous, but anything put into the wrong hands can be. Cars aren't dangerous, but the wrong person behind the wheel can make them dangerous, Guns don't kill people, because it takes a finger to pull the trigger. Giant killer robots don't... well... forget that last one. but my point is, that a kid could easily stab another kid in the face with a pencil That doesn't mean that pencils are secretly deadly weapons implanted in schools by the government, it means that kid is psycho. I don't think it's the games that made them stupid, I think they already wanted to race really badly and that's why they liked the game, but the game was no substitute for reality, rather than reality acting as a substitute for the game. Need for speed is NOT good enough of a game to get someone to act out their most heinous fantasies. It's just racing! If it was a deep rpg or something like that, maybe. but that's like saying that pinatas make all kids who play them want to go and beat the crap out of live (and flamboyant) animals with a stick. It's all nature nurture. Either they where born screwed up, or the environment they lived in made them screwed up. They just had really bad judgement, that's all. Sad really.

[Kushika 0]

I do not think that the videogames are to blame..... even if they were to blame, well, sheesh, everythign has to have it's downsides.

[iGuest 3]

i also think the kids are to blame. i have killed many of zombies and ninjas and aliens in numerous video game since i was 5 and have never thought about shooting or killing someone in real life. like wise i have played hundreds of racing games including the one mentioned but i drive safely in real life. i can distinguish fantasy from reality. in a videogame you have continues for errors in real life you dont. anyways video games are representation of our culture. People were racing cars way before video games and we had wars and violence also. so i believe either an insane or just plain stupid person would do something they see in a videogame.

1064337043[/snapback]

I agree, I remember playing Mortal Kombat when I was barely in grade school. I've never had the urge to do anything stupid, nor did any of my friends and people around us. These racers did it on their own account, not some game. If JT wants to wreck havok on games that has to do with crashes too, I wouldn't care. He has his own little dream and I don't want to hear it.

 

Though, around Califonia, there are some locatiosn where police are pulling 'cars that looked moded illegally' and checkign them. It's also only on the rice cars, or imports to say. At least they aren't blaming games... yet...

[danzarely 0]

i have to go with houdini on this one; "Stupid is as stupid does."video games don't kill people- they cause addictions, yes- but stupid people kill people. i cant say ive ever seen the allure of street racing. it's like "let's see how fast we can go surrounded by two tons of pure steel!"---stupid

[lonebyrd 0]

I see this is a very old topic, but I stumbled across it and have to comment. Of course the game isn't to blame. It's the same as when Marylin Manson was getting blamed for those kids suicides years back. So what! The listened to him. So what the kids played a game. Let me tell you my point of view. I don't know how many of you are still teenagers, but I'm 32. I can look back at what I did as a teenager and know why I did it. Yes I played violent video games and listened to hard core music (especially Suicidal Tendencies). The crazy things I did where just because they were fun, exciting, different. Something that if my parents found out, they'd be mad. I didn't do things because I was insane. I was a TEENAGER! I don't know, maybe everyone here is different, you have skills in computers, probably have dreams of going to college, do good in school. But how about the many teenagers, like I was, who aren't like that? Things are different. We did weird and wild things sometimes. It was natural. Call me crazy, call me insane. Every teenager that I knew had their own 'quirks'. Their all went to their own beat. Yeah, maybe we did some illegal things, but that was part of the excitement. Typical teenage stuff around my area. And I didn't come from some big city, just a little slice of countyside. So they will learn from their wrongdoings. Unfortunatly, someone else paid even more dearly. Everyone must learn lessons in life, even teenagers.

[Grafitti 0]

I agree with lonebyrd, it's not like you can blame the games for people's actions. why not television then, and novels, and music, and the list could go on and on. You can always try to shift the blame on to something else, but it's people's personal choice to act on it or not. Plus it's not like there wasn't any racing before nfs came along. True, with Fast & Furious there's a whole new crop of wannabe car racers, but there would still be that same crop without the movie, albeit branded differently. They might not have been so concerned about bling and more into the car handling. It's just that car racing is cool. There's an element of danger, there's extreme speed, there's pushing your car and your skills to the limit. That is cool, and that impresses friends and bystanders, which is why you do it. The problem arises in the choice of location, and that's where lots of people go wrong. It's a pity it wasn't one of those two kids that got killed instead of the taxi driver. Two rich kids driving Mercs obviously aren't short of cash, so why didn't they just rent a track? or go out to some deserted area? no, they had to do it in the city center. hopefully the stupid ones will soon learn or get killed off, so they don't ruin it for the rest of us.

[Matoking1405241541 0]

Well, that was veeery crazy. GTA + Need for speed + Real life = Dead. I am not going to never do that. Thats suicide, man.

[Moon Child 0]

I agree with most (if not all) responses here. Video games or any other media do not control what your actions do. It may influence someone, but even then that's all the game did.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

Just to follow up on the topic creation, I play Need for Speed all the time, now I'm old enough to drive, and you know what, I know that NFS is just a game, but through peer pressure, I may falter (I don't see myself doing that right now). However, I will know it will be my fault in the end.P.S: Never expected that this post will spring back to life, I already forgot all about it. ;)xboxrulz

[Grafitti 0]

I just happened to get the Top Gear series and as i was going through them, it seemed a constant thread that people were accusing Top Gear also of being responsible for road accidents. Jeremy Clarkson had some fine things to say about that, as usual:
http://www.topgear.com/

[Moon Child 0]

Here's another semi-old story involving (or blaming) another video game franchise (DMC) for people's actions:

 

Link

 

Everywhere you turn video games are being turned into the 'bad guys' and causing people to play the blame game, only because they don't want to accept the fact that just maybe it was their fault. I've personally been playing violent video games since I was a young kid and was even given firearm training (for hunting), but that doesn't mean I was ready to take advantage of the situation and use it as an excuse to hurt others. If a child isn't restricted by the parents then you run the risk of the government doing it by passing laws. Think of it as a nice way to let parents know about their bad parenting skills. Don't make the rest of us suffer because of your incompetents.

 

All I know is that the majority of the time no one makes their choices by force. That's why there's a rating label on a game box, front and back. Use it, love it, make it your own.