Traffic accident responsibility & judgment - Shino Lin case

Discussion Open Forum
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I wasn’t sure exactly where to put this thread, so Open Forum will do. Could maybe have been the General Legal Matters, but anyway…

I’m sure many of you saw or heard about the traffic accident a few days ago involving Taiwanese singer Shino Lin and a 41 year-old nurse. The story is here if you want to check it out. The basics of the story are that Shino Lin was driving home quite intoxicated at 5am and hit a woman on her scooter, knocking her off, and she died of head injuries as a result. Shino may face a maximum jail term of three years and a fine of NT$100,000 if found guilty. She’s appeared quite distraught on the TV news but is cooperating and assuming responsibility for her actions.

The day it happened and was all over the news, a few TV news channels depicted the accident to appear as though the scooter driver made an illegal left hand turn across the lane of traffic that Shino’s car was in, which caused the accident. I checked the Apple Daily the next day and they had a different depiction of the event, which didn’t look like the scooter had done that. That night on the news though, some info that was presented indicated the police had assigned some blame on the scooter driver as well.

I guess I’d like to know if anyone else heard anything about this, or if that was indeed the case. A couple of nights later, I heard one of the dead woman’s relatives angrily question why someone from Shino Lin’s side would accuse the nurse of being at fault, or even partially at fault.
Does anyone know anything about this, did you see or hear this bit of the story?

Granted, Shino Lin was driving drunk, but should she be wholly responsible for this woman’s death if indeed the scooter driver crossed lanes on an illegal left turn, in heavy rain no less? If the scooter driver was deemed not at fault in the final police report, then all this conjecture is pointless, but otherwise, it is that same old screwed up law that states the owner of the bigger vehicle is responsible for the traffic accident and injuries regardless of who was at fault in causing the accident.

I know a few Forumosans, including myself, have been involved in traffic accidents where we’ve had to pay for repairs or injuries that were not our fault, I’m just wondering what it will take for this system of stupidity to change here, and where the Shino Lin case may fall into this discussion, if at all. Consider that even if Shino Lin was not drunk at the time of the accident, she’d still be facing very serious charges and mandatory jail time.

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but she was drunk. anyway, if all we know about it is what we heard on the tv news then we know zero.

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I wonder what the article means where it says she was driving without a license and then later it says that her license will be revoked. How does that work?

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She can’t talk but it was the rain’s fault.

Next case. :unamused:

And what a bunch of gossipy gooses are the Taipei Times. Who gives a rat’s ass if she played in Kending or did rubby rubs in clubs to support her family?

And she wants to pay her respects to the dead nurse’s family? Bite me. She showed no respect for anyone by driving drunk.

Off with her head.

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She has no license and drunk .
People always think they are not drunk and they can drive safe.Gees.
But how about those victim who hitted by their drunk driving?
The nurse turned left illegally and Shino lin drunk …the tragedy happened.

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Bullshit. It’s a crime.

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She has no way to make up her fault,anyway.

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Really? Why was the nurse working? Oh yes, for money. So let’s take her salary and mulitply it by say, 25 years.

That’s a start.

She now also has a responsibility to make sure she doesn’t kill anyone ELSE driving drunk. A few years in an alcohol free prison might do they trick.

I really hope you’re not making excuses for this selfish moron.

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I can’t possibly express strongly enough how much drunken driving fucking pisses me off. It has to be one of the most selfish things anyone can possibly do.

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Maybe she’ll get 23 days in the slammer. Maybe she could make a drunk lesbian bitches porno flick with Paris Hilton. Phwooar.

BroonAccident

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100,000 nt is $3000 usd.
That’s all killing someone when drunk is worth?

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way defending Shino Lin, she was driving drunk, and will pay for her mistake, but if the nurse on the scooter made an illegal left turn into the car’s lane, it’s that error that directly caused the accident, not drunk driving. I’ve yet to see anything definitive that says the scooter driver made an illegal left turn into the car’s lane though. I was hoping someone could shed some light on that angle of this story.

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People do this to me al the time. I haven’t killed anyone.

And lucky for the star, the starwitness is well…dead.

Let’s hope for some video as clear as that of the luckiest guy in Taiwan who was run down by a guy burning through a red light, hit head on on his scooter, and had the whole thing captured by policeman holding a cam on the side of the road, and walked away with scratches. Didja see that one?

btw, I disagree that her left turn, if it happened, directly caused the accident. The driver’s being twice the limit had a lot more to do with it IMHO. Reaction time, car speed, and all that.

I also disagree that she will pay for her mistake. She’s a star. All she needs to do is cry on TV like all the others before her. :raspberry:

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Most of the accidents, or near accidents, that I’ve seen here have involved both parties doing something completely illegal/stupid. I would almost use the cliche that it takes two to tango, but that’s not always the case. A lot of times there are completely innocent victims.

Now, if that nurse made an illegal left turn, crossing the lanes, then perhaps the accident would be partly her fault, but the truth is, we don’t know the facts on that, and until I hear facts on that, I refuse to make a judgment.

NEVERTHELESS, the second Shino Lin decided to get in her car (and I’m not going to assume it’s the first time she ever did it, although yet again, I do not have the facts), she lost all respect from me, and quite frankly I don’t give a shit about what happens to her now. Really… pays a fine, goes to prison, feels guilty, gets depressed. None of this matters to me. What matters is that she ended that nurse’s life, and that can never be brought back. And it wasn’t ended because of some tragic accident. It was ended the very first time (yes, I said the very first time) Shino Lin made a decision that it was OK for her to drive drunk. Because from that moment on, every time she drove drunk, she was risking other people’s lives (I don’t care if she put her own life at risk. She can do what she wants with that, although the people she would leave behind would obviously suffer, which again pisses me off).

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People make illegal turns all the time. Especially in Taiwan. The thing that keeps them from being deadly is the spiderman reflexes of the average sober Taiwanese driver. Her being drunk took those reflexes away.

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I realize that aspect (drunk reaction time) has to be factored in. However, someone stone cold sober might not be able to react in time to someone else’s traffic mistake though too, resulting the same outcome. Then what?

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Then the scooter driver would still be dead but it wouldn’t be the car driver’s fault. However, being drunk or driving without a license is in many countries sufficient to consider you 100% guilty. And rightfully so IMO.

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I realize that aspect (drunk reaction time) has to be factored in. However, someone stone cold sober might not be able to react in time to someone else’s traffic mistake though too, resulting the same outcome. Then what?[/quote]
Then there’s a hope that this woman wouldn’t be dead. But really Mer, that’s neither here nor there.

Illegal Lefties are commonplace in Taiwan, and most drivers are well aware of the probability that someone will make one. But, NOTHING should distract anyone from the fact that the driver was over the limit and impaired.

500NT and a taxi and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Not that I don’t enjoy chatting with you. It happens too infrequently. :slight_smile:

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[quote=“jdsmith”]
Illegal Lefties are commonplace in Taiwan[/quote]

Save your Republican snipes for IP, Mr. Smith. Or the visa/immigration forum at the very least.

BroonAutomobile

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Really? Why was the nurse working? Oh yes, for money. So let’s take her salary and mulitply it by say, 25 years.

That’s a start.

She now also has a responsibility to make sure she doesn’t kill anyone ELSE driving drunk. A few years in an alcohol free prison might do they trick.

I really hope you’re not making excuses for this selfish moron.[/quote]
Why I have to make excuses for her?
She really did the crime.And she will face the judge.
No matter how much money she will pay ,she really has no way to make up anything to the nurse’s kid and husband.