Street race fatal crash linked to video game

Toronto Star article...

It could be worse. It could be: Fatal Crash Tied to Rennlist Thread on Driving 150+ MPH on Public Roads

JimB, if it wasn't for the grave and serious undertone to your comment, it would be hilarious!

The death of an innocent father of two children is bad enough in my book...

What a stretch to link a video game to the race just because it was on the front seat. Whether it was linked or not, you just cannot determine that from the evidence. What if they found a pack of condoms on the front seat. Would the conclusion be "desire for safe sex causes accident"?

I don't believe in the ole video game made me do it theory.. People will street race with or with out video games.. I mean, I don't see many fat kids coming outside to play basketball because they play, NBA Live on Playstation..

Our perspectives are shaped by our life's expeiences. About fifteen years ago, the 14 year son of one of my best friends, was killed by a speeding driver. The boy was riding his bike to school, when a speeding driver lost control of his car and ran over the bike. The boy was killed instantly.

Never condone stupidity!

damn..that's near my house. very sad news. condolences go out to Tahir's family. In my opinion, i don't think that video games r entirly responsible for the things that they get blamed for. Naturally this depends on the person who is playing them, but assuming the person is of normal personality and mental computing ability. Speeding is fun even if you don't play videogames. My mom does it, my dad does it, my girlfriend does it, her grandpa does it. I do it. We do it regardless of whether or not we play video games. I do play video games..but usually air combat stuff since actually driving is far better than any Grand Turismo could hope to be. Does this mean that as soon as i play the game i must go out and speed? No. Do I want to? Yes. The same feeling i also get from listening to Van Halen, AC/DC etc...But I choose to pick the right time to speed. These kids chose the wrong time and disaster soon followed. I have a feeling they would have gotten into trouble eventually regardless of the game. That intersection is pretty much downtown toronto,busy area, they wern' thinking, it's not EA's fault for making an entertaining product, it's the kid's for making a ****ty choice. *steps off soap box and takes of preacher's robe*

Yea thats sad news.................Paul are you in the T Dot yet?

Stupid parents giving kids high performance cars. 4 kids were killed here at Christmas time. An 18 year old driving a WRX at high speed. Alcohol was involved. I'd place the blame on poor parental judgment and supervision long before I'd blame video game manufacturers. When I was a kid playing games was all about being a soldier. I never shot anyone with my .22

I agree, I don't think the "because it's there" argument sufficiently explains it. I'm 19 and have a 300hp 996 like most of the rest of you guys and I'm not some wild maniac streetracer and I'll proudly and somewhat sheepishly admit that NFS is installed on my computer! There are lots of "kids" with fast cars, but these stunts dont happen that often, just like anything else, some people cant handle temptation.

I'm still in Los Angeles, but will be driving back to Toronto in about two weeks. I hope the weather holds up until then.

And some people don't realize that even though some of these games are very realistic (with various feedback emitting controls etc) they're still nowhere near replicating driving a real car with so many unknown variables. I think these games instill a false sense of driving ability in many kids.

yes because I played this game (by the way, TOTALLY unrealistic and cartoony) and I just HAVE to drive as fast as possible now although some people in the general population can't distinguish between fantasy and reality

Now I understand why I used to keep poking people in the eyes when I was a kid....watching too many 3 Stooges movies! It really wasn't my fault afterall.

Methinks it is just "youth" that instills the false sense of driving ability. The game is in no way to blame for this crash. Stupid kids raised by stupid parents are to blame. I hope the family of the cab driver sues the parents for everything they've got.

Easy cmoss, you were a kid once too and Im sure you had your stupid days just like everyone else. Humans learn by mistakes, its sad but true. Ive grown up with many kids that were total rebels that were from very wealthy families with smartass parents that just did dumb **** for dumb reasons so you can't blame the parents in such case. I've actually learn a lot from their mistakes. If they blame the video game for the tragic incident, what are they going to use as an escape goat for such incidents that had happen in the past when video games were pacman/centepedes??

Well, since pacman, obesity has been a problem in the US. I smell a lawsuit!

HA!

Firstly, a bit of a witch hunt.. 20 years ago every time a kid did something out of line it was Ozzy Ozbornes fault.. You know - that guy who was recently invited to a White House luncheon. Having said that, a couple of experiences: 1) After playing a driving game all day, I pulled a Uturn in my truck across a central reservation that was totally insane - and I didn't think twice about it. Afterwards I thought WTF! and realized that I'd slipped out of reality. 2) Rumor has it that in the early days of full driving simulators designed to help make Mercedes cars better in emergency situations, the test drivers were getting into accidents. The simulations were all about people driving out infront of the cars, and how the car handles and what happened in the accidents. Could be folklore, but the theory was that the drivers got so used to just being able to restart after an accident that they thought nothing of having one. At the end of the day though - does that mean that a Video game manufacturer is some how responsible for people taking the fantasy to real life? I think not. Keith

When I was 17 I had a '69 Cutlass that was completely overhauled and souped up. My Dad and I rebuilt the engine (350 rocket) in the garage and that thing had insane HP. So anyway, it was a convertible and my friends used to pile in and we would drive around town risking our lives every night. I never thought twice about going over 100mph - with no working seatbelts in the car (literally- NO seatbelts), balding tires, a tired suspension, really bad brakes - but insane power and speed. I would race anyone, anywhere - it didn't matter because I was an invincible kid. I'm sure if there had been a cool racing game back then I would have played it and liked it, but the fact is I was just a stupid kid who thought I would live forever.

Update...

Widening the backdoor a little does hurt, I can imagine. What pisses me off, is he killed this guy, but he will NOt see the inside of a jail cell again after he's set free - **** the 'justice' (haha) system

Before the blame lands in the lap of video games people surely the car companies have to stop making cars that could possibly kill first? I think the car killed before the video game did. When we are all driving sponge cars chained together and towed at a sensible 2mph then the maybe the nanny state will be happy. www.red964.com/html/dyndex.php www.projectsonly.co.uk

I don't think anyone is really 'blaming' video games. It's just a case of kids feeling invincible and having their driving skills falsely inflated whilst 'driving' in a simulation. Throw in a small dose of stupidity, and this is the result.

Before the blame lands in the lap of video games people surely the car companies have to stop making cars that could possibly kill first? I think the car killed before the video game did. Let's face it, neither the video game nor the cars killed the man. The kids killed the man. Although in today's society, people are never held accountable for their actions. Irresponsible drivers of all ages have raced on the streets many decades before video games. Go to any car forum and do a search on the words "killed" or "top speed" and you'll have hundreds of posts to read.

look up Mary Jo Kopechne

Not to be one to revive an aging thread without new content, but look what I found cruising the tivo TV guide web pages. I wonder what kind of a slant A&E will put on this... Street Racing: The Need for Speed Racers have been killed in illegal street races in Toronto. Tue 2/7 8:00 PM 47 AETVP Duration: 1:00 No Rating Documentary, Special, Auto Racing, Documentary, Sports