Yacht Master

That M5 board (via Ocla.com felix)has some funny posts

"I would be much prefer an 18 year old with brains to have an M5 rather than spend his money on some other piece of junk that could kill him and his mates in an accident"

Totally over his head.

KrisKeeney

Ah.

I limit my "pretend like I'm working but really not" time solely to this MB forum. Never venture out past this one.

Yacht Master

They will tack on a bit to M5s. Like an age group has different risk factors so to do the cars based on number of claims. Our AMGs enjoy an excellent history of lower than average number of claims. Do AMG dads keep the keys?

Carl Lassiter

Blame the proliferation of dangerous, cap wearing M3 drivers for this.

KrisKeeney

This Dad is ONLY human ever driving this AMG. Others can look at it, and occasionally ride in it, but as far as driving it: the driver's seat knows only one arss.

Yacht Master

Mine too!

ItalianStallion

Nope....I beat pop's SL55 till the power steering failed and the roll bar popped up and dislocated the convertible top . All parking lot fun, no other people in the vicinity to get hurt so I don't need a lecture. Just lots of fun and smoke. Still, I'd never dream of taking his car to the limiter, both because of my semi-functioning brain and because I had too much respect for my father to do something as wreckless as that.

CWW

The parents would ultimately have to file for bankruptcy protection in order to enforce that exemption. It's not an automatic bar to all liens against the property, it simply prevents unsecured creditors from forcing the sale of the property to pay off unrelated debts.

So, the other boys' families would sue and obtain a judgment against all assets of the driver's parents which is good for 10 years and renewable for another 10. What are the odds they won't try and sell that house for 20 years? Not good...

So, using that loophole really ends up requiring a bankruptcy filing, in practical terms. However, that would obviously require the liquidation of all their other assets in order to pay creditors (which would be the others boys' families), which may very well be worth far more than the house.

The kid's parents are s-c-r-e-w-e-d to the wall.

Yacht Master

House/equity = chicken feed in this case. I bet Daddy was moving assets offshore first thing Monday morning.

RJC

If he did it would be after the fact and he may be getting himself into deeper trouble...

Vader55

I found this link

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=124526

RJC

Great link...yet another case of some kid saying the car was his and it's Daddy's all along...hate to say it but he also sounded a bit arrogant too


Apparently AmericanM5 had not been entirely truthful in his postings. The M5 belonged not to him, but instead to his father.

When members of the M5board forum had made this suggestion online, AmericanM5 bristled: "It's mine, buddy. I just traded in my 335i and paid the difference."

Another member suggested that AmericanM5's lack of knowledge about the BMW M5's transmission could be easily explained: "Maybe your two years' driving experience in your whole life is the problem."

AmericanM5 responded: "That could be a good assumption but the fact I never drive a manual car before may be true, but I've been driving for a lot longer than two years, buddy."

KrisKeeney

I agree with this sentiment exactly.

Sometimes we try to make things more complicated than it really is. In my view, there ain't a whole lot of "gray" in this picture. It is black and white: they rolled the dice and lost. As a "yute," I too rolled the dice many times myself. For whatever reason, I lived to learn from it and move on. And I can tell you this story has cooled my jets a bit behind the steering wheel of my E55.

And regarding that Florida law making the owner of property at fault; man, someone needs to talk some sense into those legislators and change that nonsense.

Yacht Master

The poor man faces some tough decisions. You are 100% right, much more trouble after the fact. I see it this way, if he has a net worth over 10 million he and his people are already in damage control mode. What will he do? stay and give up everything, continue to work to pay off debt and live a modest existence till retirement and then barely survive on SS or take that extended vacation next month.

T Bone

I would third party the estate of the dead son to spread the liability, he was an adult afterall.

enzom

Those are some great memories. I thought I was the only one who experienced first hand (and sometimes back hand) tough love.

NdnMbLova

Man, Parents are not willing to lay down the law for being seen as "monsters". It sucks that society has come to this.

I Like Soup

I must say, I've thought about this accident a fair bit since Saturday.

I Like Soup

It makes me think of that lady recently that put the ad in her paper selling her son's car because she found empty alcohol bottles in it. She said she was selling it because she was a bad mother, or some such. Quite humorous!

Chargin55

Easy fellas. No doubt the old man is a petrol head too and he may well read these pages, although it’s probably the last thing he feels like doing now. I was also schooled with a strap across my back. I even got the *** jug cord once and you know about that when you get let me tell you! An upper cut has got nothing on the jug cord, and I still managed to nearly kill myself on a few occasions. When you’re that age you learn by your mistakes and think to yourself “I wont do that again” That’s also how we find our own limitations and the limitations of our vehicles.
This stuff about too young to drive an M5 may have some merit but how old are F1 drivers? How old are fighter pilots? Difference is they are educated. We taught ourselves in slower cars and made it. These kids are teaching themselves in much faster cars today and are dying. If you want to drive fast you have got to learn to drive fast sensibly. Please don’t blame the parents on this one. As if all 5 kid parents are not blaming themselves in one way or another. Its up to the Government to make it law that kids are better educated to drive safely. Put them on the track and let em go for it.

Jon2007E63P30

Just............... aaaaawww s**t.

This is just bad. No more on my pedestal.

Yacht Master

Chargin55,

I would say the old man was not a "petrol head", here is why. The posts on the M5 board by the young driver make it oblivious that he did not even posses the most rudimentary knowledge of the M5, let alone driving one at speed. I don't believe the father spent any time with his son on a petrol/gear head level.



My father spent thousands of hours with me teaching me about aircraft, boats, bikes and cars. I am sure that I am not alone in this regard. So to the guys that had the same kinda dad that took the time to teach you how to clean and gap the spark plug on your minibike when you were 7. Was always there to encourage and set goals/next toy and let you work your way to the goals, and always made you work for what you wanted. This would be a good time to give the old man a call and thank him.

CWW

It's not just FL...lots of states have similar statutes. It won't stop with just the car owner either. The owner(s) of that airfield are going to get popped under "attractive nuisance" theory.

If they had prior knowledge that the area was a drag-racing hangout or was often trespassed on by kids, and still didn't take any action to seal off the entrance to the strip, then they better open their checkbooks.

Actually, I'd bet the airfield owners are the big losers in all of this. The driver's estate and the driver's father will have some viable assumption of risk/comparative negligence defenses that will decrease the amount of damages collected...after all, the other kids chose to participate in the activity which was obviously dangerous. But depending on how many times this kind of thing happened before on that landing strip, how well-known it was as a place to drive cars, drink, etc., the property owners are going to have a much tougher time of it at trial.

Additionally, the driver's father may even have a 3rd party claim against the airfield owners for a portion of whatever damages are awarded against him, in addition to a primary claim for the loss of his son. I hope they have insurance, because good god....FIVE deaths and all of them 20yr olds....that adds up to insane damages. Young kids and life-care plans are how you get into the stratosphere.

It's a shame Marion county's clerk isn't online yet...It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

As to holding property owners liable, and there being no "gray" in this situation, I dunno... If one of them was your kid, you'd probably feel differently. Also, if I owned a property where there's, let's say a giant hole with a popcorn machine at the bottom of it, and 47 kids have already fallen down it already but I continue to do nothing until someone dies, then you would say I have absolutely NO responsibility in the matter? Obviously that's reductio ad absurdum, but you get the point...

Andy0331

Not sure if you mean the site is down or not, but it's definitely online.

Main site: http://www.marioncountyclerk.org

Official Records: http://216.255.240.38/wb_or1/or_sch_1.asp

Case Search: http://www.marioncountyclerk.org/ind...62ec03d0674a29

CWW

Is that new? I didn't know they were online...

I had a speeding ticket there about 18 months ago on the way to Tampa and tried to look my case up online and couldn't find anywhere to do it on their website.

Neat.