Renton, a suburb of Seattle, hosts several major job providers and is well-developed. South from it, state economy gets worse, and the houses get cheaper. The traffic in Renton area is heavy. Besides enterprises, the area houses a major hospital, the biggest shopping mall in WA, IKEA, several community colleges, Museum of flight, and Boeing Field, an airport. Further down I-5, there is SeaTac, Washington’s main international airport. Via Renton, there goes an alternative way to commute to West Seattle, when its main artery, West Seattle Bridge, is under reconstruction.
Many of us, use Renton roads frequently, and I am one of the community members frequently traveling through Renton. I view Chase to be a danger to public.
The case needs to be discussed. It rapidly becomes controversial here, but it should be about road safety. At what stage do we suspend people’s licenses and send them to retraining classes? I hope we shall have such a discussion as we follow this case.
Regarding the obvious question about his parents’ choice, to provide a new car after each accident. The accused recently graduated from a nearby HS and superficially, appears a very average student. The community seems angry with the parents; I am inclined to view the situation as not-too-uncommon. (JMO: the parents might be burdened with their jobs, the kid is not a troublemaker, just graduated, and they hope that he’ll eventually become independent, because currently, he is obviously not.) Likewise, I am not asking why law enforcement had not suspended his license after accident Nr 2; of three accidents, one was not considered his fault. If you read through the three cases, it does appear that Chase is an unsafe and unbridled driver, but ironically, the driver who was changing the lanes to stay farther from Chase, ended in violation himself. Another accident was the “grand rehearsal” of the last deadly case, but at a lower speed. Unless you are an impaired driver, speeding is not a huge offense here.
But as the result, there are now four victims, three kids and one adult, as well as their grieving families. The community including myself, questions the rationale for the judge’s decision to lower the initial bail of 1 mln USD to 100 K. And, even if Chase’s actions are “a mistake”, they are too costly. What do you do if the person constantly pushes the wrong button? You isolate him from those on the receiving end of his actions.
Personally, I think we are fully allowed to sleuth the perpetrator. Not his family. I do have a question to his defensive driving instructor and examiners, but I don’t think we can get these answers now.
