Whose fault is it?: An underage girl brings alcohol to tailgate party. She dies

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   dashingscorpioposted 10 years ago

   Whose fault is it?: An underage girl brings alcohol to tailgate party. She dies in a car accident.
   
   The Kraft Group, which owns Gillette Stadium and the New England Patriots, agreed to settle the suit with the parents of Debra Davis. Davis along with some friends (brought alcohol) to have a tailgate party for an event they did (not) have tickets for. Afterwards (she drove drunk) killing herself and a friend. Her family blamed the Kraft Group for not supervising the parking lot. Should this case have even gone to trial? Wasn't it Ms. Davis' (choices) that led to her death? It seems like it's always someone else's fault these days even when pain is self inflicted.
   
   

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   crackerjack9posted 10 years ago

   I think when something like this happens that causes so much pain, the parents just want SOMEONE to blame. In the end it was no doubt the girl's own fault. But that doesn't make the grieving parents feel any better. Just like they want to blame the stadium, who's to say they (the parents) aren't to blame for not knowing what their daughter was doing? Or the liquor store's fault for not knowing the booze was going to a minor? Or the automakers fault for not preventing a drunk person from driving? It all boils down to the choices that young girl made that night.

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   peeplesposted 10 years ago

   I always feel mean when I state my opinion on things like this, but it really does irk me. Lets say a 15 year old goes out and kills 5 people. Everyone's reaction is "acted grown so sentence him as an adult". Yet if a young kid drinks and dies we look for someone else to blame. Also what society deems as bad or acceptable behavior often is determined based on if it was a male or female minor. There are a lot of emotions that seem to get in the way on these. Realistically in my opinion, whoever sold or got her alcohol should be charged with something (not murder). I say this because we can't pick and choose when someone is a minor. If they are incapable of making the decision to buy cigarettes, go to war, buy porn, or even a lotto ticket then they certainly aren't capable of fully understanding the severity of their actions. A child is a child, an adult an adult. So someone should be held accountable for providing alcohol to the child.

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      dashingscorpioposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree it can be a touchy issue. It's not politically correct to say a person is responsible for their own actions. Legally a 13 year old who plots & executes murder is tried as an (adult). If he/she decides to have sex they're a victim. 13 is 1

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   cjaroszposted 10 years ago

   I would say its everyone's fault. The parents who didn't make sure that their daughter didn't make sure their daughter understood that it would be wrong. Whoever she got the alcohol from, because clearly they weren't thinking straight. The friend, who encouraged her to do this. All the people who knew this girl was drinking, and still let her drive.
   
   However, I wouldn't say it was the Kraft Group. Here's my reasoning. There should have been law enforcement there to watch for these kinds of incidents. Even if there were, I highly doubt they could single handedly check for every ID in the lot. Kids are kids, they know how to get around things. There will always be something that slips by.
   
   That being said, it is a parents way of justifying their daughters death. If you are a parent, you can understand how it is to loose you child. Even if it might not be anyone's fault. You would will want to blame it on someone else. Simply because, why would our children do these things? This is the classic story of Footloose. The kids die, the parents reacts on the whole town.
   
   It is extreme the way parents can react like that. In the same thought of, how do you think you would handle this situation. Would you know who was in the wrong? Would you try to blame someone else?
   
   With that

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      dashingscorpioposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I disagree with part of your answer. It's not everyone's fault. I agree with your statement: " Kids are kids, they (know how) to get around things." The teens (knew) its illegal to drink alcohol at their age & they (knew) its bad to drink & d

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   Lisa HWposted 10 years ago

   The brains of teens are not fully matured until early- to mid- twenties, so while it was, of course, the girl's own doing; I think there is a difference between the teen who uses bad judgment - particularly since judgment is one of the things involved with the brain's not being mature - and that of an adult.  Still, it was the girl's own doing.
   
   I can really see, though, why some people would see some merit to the argument that the parking lot should have been better monitored.  Since the whole "tail-gating thing" was part of what people do in parking lots at games, and since the girl didn't have a ticket apparently; I can see a certain amount of merit to the argument that a lawsuit would call attention to the situation and point out that monitoring the parking lot better should be a part of the whole thing involved with putting on the game.
   
   Maybe nobody else can be blamed for what one kid does/did out of the bad judgment of being a kid and having an immature brain; but I do see some validity to the point that it's never a great thing for adults/anyone to set up a situation that kind of invites some behavior that probably goes on all the time but just isn't really discovered as a result of a tragedy.
   
   I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to that case and don't what what the parents have expressed or think about blame, but I think wanting to sue for the purpose of aiming to try to reduce the chances something similar will happen again is a "legitimate" reason to sue. It's just unfortunate that so many times people don't pay attention to things that kind of invite disaster until someone dies.

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      dashingscorpioposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      If we deem a teen to be mature & responsible enough to drive a car among our citizens its because we believe they can & will use (good) judgment! We try teens as adults in court all the time. No drunk driver believes they'll crash regardless

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   peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

   it is the girl's fault. Since alcohol is not allowed, she drove and drank under her own initiative. Nobody to blame.

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