Aussie drag racer 'accepts plea deal'

[Mothers Worry]

Aussie drag racer 'accepts plea deal'

From AAP via Yahoo!7 News:

Aussie drag racer 'accepts plea deal'

Australian drag racer Troy Critchley has negotiated a deal that will keep him out of an American jail.

The Queensland-born, Texas-based Critchley was facing life in prison, but in a plea deal agreed upon with Tennessee prosecutors on Tuesday and supported by families of the victims, he was sentenced to one year of probation and a suspended one year jail sentence.

He will only go to jail if he violates the probation.

It is a huge relief for Critchley.

The 37-year-old generated worldwide headlines last year when his high-powered performance car skidded out of control at a charity event in the town of Selmer, Tennessee, and crashed into the crowd.

Six spectators, aged 15 to 22, died and 22 other people, including a five-year-old boy, were injured.

Critchley was originally charged with six counts of vehicular homicide and 22 counts of reckless aggravated assault that could have sent him to jail for 90 years.

Under Tuesday's deal, the charges were dropped and replaced with 28 counts of reckless simple assault.

Critchley is expected to enter guilty pleas to the charges in a Tennessee court on Thursday.

Critchley was known as the "Burnout King" for his expertise in performing the stunt at charity events and drag shows.

In an interview with Australian TV news show 60 Minutes earlier this year he said his memories of the crash would forever haunt him, but he does not know how to apologise to the victims.

"I don't know how I can ever say that I am sorry," he said in the Nine Network interview.

"I will be sorry for the rest of my life."

[the Stig]

I was annoyed when I first heard of the plea bargain - I mean why should he even HAVE to accept anything other than a full aquittal? But I suppose given the option of a possibility of 90 years in jail, as opposed to a 1 year suspended sentence it would be too big a gamble to knock back. I just hope there's plans underway to launch some sort of counter-attack against the certain people who I believe are the real culprits here - once a 90 year prison sentence possibility is off the table.

[Mothers Worry]

I'm not aware of all the facts but:

Who organised this event?

Who should have been responsible for safety?

Has anyone else been charged with anything if there are others involved in the organisation of the event?

 

[Prophet][]

Im no expert on US law, but I do remember reading once that individuals can be prosacuted over a company or group of people. This is make sure 1 guy can take the fall for a whole company and it is seen that justice is done. It isn't this simple here where a company is usually blamed and prosacuted with the company trying to make it look like there was only 1 person responsible so it doesn't have to take to public fall.

Classic recent example is the head of Boeing taking the blame for Project Wedgetail. Realisticly he has little to do with why its late, over budjet and causing governments to make law suits. But they he has taken the blame and now been fired (probably with the golden handshake) and will still front the government investigations taking all the blame for the hundreds of people working on it.

[Muzza]

I'm not aware of all the facts but:

Who organised this event?

Who should have been responsible for safety?

Has anyone else been charged with anything if there are others involved in the organisation of the event?

 

NO nobody else has been charged with anything.. 

IMO, Even though Troy is the professional on the day and knows just how many thing can go wrong the most part of the blame must lie with those that organised the event and the local police.
In my previous job we did many of these burnout shows and it was always upto the organisers to ensure the crowd saftey (Must be different in the US)

Here's a bit of a story about what happened...

The team was asked to attend a charity event in Selmer, Tenn. to help raise money for the Cars For Kids charity and was told the organization had staged a charity car show for the past 18 years in which the drivers performed burnouts. The team sent its racing team to the event to display two racing cars — a '93 Corvette and a '57 Chevy — and planned to have each vehicle perform an exhibition burnout.

A burnout is a demonstration in which the driver spins the tires to create smoke and noise to demonstrate the ability of the car. The driver involved in the accident, Troy Critchley, is an experienced professional driver who had performed more than a 1,000 exhibition burnouts without incident prior to Saturday.

The team arrived in Selmer on Friday June 15, 2007. On Saturday the team displayed two cars for the public to view, and, after displaying the cars, the crew was instructed to line up with other cars participating in the event. After the parade was completed, Selmer Police Officers blocked off the highway for the cars to perform the burnouts. The team understands that the Selmer Police Chief, Neal Burks, was present and in charge of crowd placement and blocking off the street.

The drivers understood that the roadway had been inspected and approved for the burnout exhibition. Before Mr. Critchley began the exhibition, two Selmer police cars traveled down the left and right of the roadway and instructed the crowd to move back. Mr. Critchley was signaled to start and he began to perform the burnout. After a straight start, the car skidded off the road. Mr. Critchley did everything humanly possible to keep the car on the road, but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do.

Mr. Critchley was taken to the Emergency Room and treated for injuries he sustained in the accident. He voluntarily submitted blood for testing to the Tennessee Highway Patrol and it was confirmed he had no alcohol or drugs in his system. The entire crew remained in Selmer on Sunday, June 17 to cooperate and provide information to Tennessee State authorities investigating the accident.

The team has agreed for the involved car to remain in the possession of the Tennessee Highway Patrol for examination. Mr. Critchley was not arrested nor has he been given any indication he will be charged with a criminal offense. The team is cooperating with the State of Tennessee and is currently investigating a number of factors that may have contributed to the accident including crowd control, safety precautions and the preparation and condition of the roadway."

There was also talk in one of the reports that the local fire men had wet the deep end of the road where the car had gone off line...



Edited to increase text size / ease readability of this important quote...... EB

[the Stig]

So to put it into perspective, I am a professional drag racer and I am asked by a promotor to perform a burnout. I agree to do it, for free, as a goodwill gesture (It's a charity event). I turn up and find out that not only have the fire dept hosed down the road for the burnouts, the local police have CLEARED AND CLOSED THE ROAD, and are SUPERVISING the event. The Police are ACTING ON BEHALF OF THE POLICE CHEIF. It all goes to custard and I crash and people are killed/injured, who should take responsibility here - me, the professional driver, or the Police cheif who was responsible for closing off the road? Pretty easy answer in my opinion....

Who laid charges against Troy? Oh yes, THE POLICE!

[Mothers Worry]

NO nobody else has been charged with anything.. 

IMO, Even though Troy is the professional on the day and knows just how many thing can go wrong the most part of the blame must lie with those that organised the event and the local police.
In my previous job we did many of these burnout shows and it was always upto the organisers to ensure the crowd saftey (Must be different in the US)

Here's a bit of a story about what happened...

Yeah and TC has been left to carry the liability for this. Does this suck or what?

[the chad]

well.... thank goodness for that news.

like it was said above, he should not have been in a situation where he is excepting a plea, but the sooner this is over the better.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Indeed much as the plea bargain is still a little unfair, it guarantees an early end to all this with no detention, and what is more a misdemeanour record than that of a criminal that the other could have led to.  Im sure it is an episode Troy wants to put behind him and hopefully that is the end to it.  He can now get on with his life.

It seems that the victims are with it on this so hopefully there will be no private actions to follow.

There is more info on the whole sad business, which stems back to his story on 60 minutes a couple of months ago, and posted in the TV coverage area:

http://www.australianmotorsportforums.com.au/forum/index.php?topic=1633.msg29470#msg29470

[Mothers Worry]

Plea bargains seem to assume guilt, liability or responsibility. It seems like a bit of gun to the head approach.

[bpratt]

It seems that the victims are with it on this so hopefully there will be no private actions to follow.

But are they really prepared to let it go, or are they going to use his 'guilty' to try and get more money in their civil actions ?

Other than the people who died and were injured, the worst part of this all from what I can see, is that the police chief has got off scot-free, when he and his police officers gave the go-ahead with no protection to the spectators.

That to me is the person the civil action should be taken against, not the guy who turned up on his own 'dime' to put on a charity show.

[Prophet][]

It seems that the victims are with it on this so hopefully there will be no private actions to follow.

But are they really prepared to let it go, or are they going to use his 'guilty' to try and get more money in their civil actions ?

Other than the people who died and were injured, the worst part of this all from what I can see, is that the police chief has got off scot-free, when he and his police officers gave the go-ahead with no protection to the spectators.

That to me is the person the civil action should be taken against, not the guy who turned up on his own 'dime' to put on a charity show.

Yea, but its the way their law system works. It accually is good system when looking at large companies who rip people off. In this case it isn't fair but our law system isn't always fiar.

[Everso Biggyballies]

It seems that the victims are with it on this so hopefully there will be no private actions to follow.

.......from what I can see, is that the police chief has got off scot-free, when he and his police officers gave the go-ahead with no protection to the spectators.

That to me is the person the civil action should be taken against, not the guy who turned up on his own 'dime' to put on a charity show.

I could not agree more, and the point I made before in the other thread is that it seemed likely that the people with the key responsibility and should have been taking most of the responsibility, the police, are the ones who would have been building the original case against Troy.

Anyway the key thing now is that for all the what ifs and such it seems to have been amicably resolved to all parties, and whilst being respectful of the loss of life and families grief of those directly affected there is a least a sense of completion now, and hopefully everyone can move along and repair their lives as best as possible.  Hopefully a lot of learning on all sides will have been the result of it all to ensure there is never a repetition.

[the Stig]

[/quote]

Yea, but its the way their law system works. It accually is good system when looking at large companies who rip people off. In this case it isn't fair but our law system isn't always fiar.
[/quote]

I hear what you're saying - no-one is saying that one person can't or shouldn't be held accountable - there is one person here who apparently should be held accountable - based on what I've read - and it's not Troy. He is being used as a scape goat. By taking the plea bargain he has taken away the likelyhood of spending the rest of his life behind bars (Who would risk that?), but the Police now have a conviction, everyone else gets off scott free and the flood gates have been opened for the families to sue - for millions. Justice my @r$3!

[Mothers Worry]

By taking the plea bargain he has taken away the likelyhood of spending the rest of his life behind bars (Who would risk that?).........

Gun to the head. Justice is an illusion.