7/24/23 Trial of Usman Shahid -- driver who killed two Oakton teens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im clueless here, but could there also be a civil suit where the victims families could receive monetary damages?

Yes. But this is the criminal trial. Civil can come later potentially.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A person turning left in a 35 mph zone cannot reasonably foresee that a rocket-like-car will be coming at him at 80+ mph. There's no way the 4 Runner driver could or should have expected someone to be coming THAT fast down the road.

The 4 Runner driver looked and saw nothing coming, or whatever was coming was far enough away not to be a problem IF THEY WERE GOING anywhere near the speed limit. If a person was driving 50 mph, you could see that. But, you cannot adapt to someone going 80+ mph coming over a hill. You just can't. And the law doesn't expect you to. The roads and allowable turn lanes do not anticipate someone going 80+ on that road.

If opposing traffic going 80+mph was foreseeable, the road would not have been designed to allow turning left without giving a "protected left turn" (i.e. oncoming traffic would have a red light when left-turning traffic had a green arrow to turn left). That was not how the street was designed. Why? Because it's reasonable to expect a left-turning driver to see oncoming traffic that is moving at some speed greater than the posted limit (designers know that people speed). But they don't design for people to be going more than TWICE the speed limit.

The 4Runner driver had no way of anticipating a rocket coming at him.

But did he check for pedestrians before he started turning? He started turning before it was clear.

Check for pedestrians on the sidewalk? What?

He was waiting in the lane of oncoming traffic while the pedestrians crossed the road he was turning into. He should have looked for pedestrians before starting the turn.

I do that all the time in DC. Cars drive slow there, and there are gobs of pedestrians at all times.

The problem was not the 4Runner making a poor decision, if the speeding BMW came over the hill unforeseeably.

It was mostly the BMW, but partially the 4Runner for being stopped in the lane of oncoming traffic.

NP. Nauseatong to see the attempts on this thread to deflect even partial blame away from the selfish idiot doing 80 mph.

[Anonymous]

Saw a few hours of the trial yesterday. The police who was at the scene was cross examined and a 17 minute audio recording exists of the accused claiming to be aware of the 35 mph speed limit along with a drawing the accused and the police officer drew up to together in the hospital of the crash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saw a few hours of the trial yesterday. The police who was at the scene was cross examined and a 17 minute audio recording exists of the accused claiming to be aware of the 35 mph speed limit along with a drawing the accused and the police officer drew up to together in the hospital of the crash.

Thank you for this update! If you have any other details, please share.

[Anonymous]

Channel 4 update from yesterday:
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/driver-goes-on-trial-for-crash-that-killed-2-teenage-girls/3595077/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mom of the injured girl who survived works 7 days/week full time IN addition to the girl also working part time to help to pay the medical bills. And he's just been living his life like nothing happened. Disgusting.

Has Shahid's insurance not paid anything out?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Channel 4 update from yesterday:
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/driver-goes-on-trial-for-crash-that-killed-2-teenage-girls/3595077/

Thanks for posting. Crazy the only "reporting" consists of a two-minute video and no written reports. It sounds like two passengers in Shahid's BMW testified that he accelerated shortly before the crash, but they were both on their phones so they didn't see what happened. Not sure what to make of that. It also sounds like the defense introduced evidence of Shahid's statement to the officers that he was driving about 35 MPH in response to the police's assertion that he was going 81, which doesn't seem like it should be given much weight, but that's up to the jury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mom of the injured girl who survived works 7 days/week full time IN addition to the girl also working part time to help to pay the medical bills. And he's just been living his life like nothing happened. Disgusting.

Has Shahid's insurance not paid anything out?!?

Minimum liability coverage in VA is $30k/person. That's not going to go very far if an injured victim requires ongoing medical treatment two years later. And as an 18-year old Shahid is probably judgment proof even if his family has money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mom of the injured girl who survived works 7 days/week full time IN addition to the girl also working part time to help to pay the medical bills. And he's just been living his life like nothing happened. Disgusting.

Has Shahid's insurance not paid anything out?!?

Minimum liability coverage in VA is $30k/person. That's not going to go very far if an injured victim requires ongoing medical treatment two years later. And as an 18-year old Shahid is probably judgment proof even if his family has money.

MINIMUM - no one is getting the min.

[Anonymous]

An update from today’s proceedings. I really feel for the 4Runner driver.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/defense-tries-to-shift-blame-in-crash-that-killed-two-oakton-high-students/3596155/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An update from today’s proceedings. I really feel for the 4Runner driver.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/defense-tries-to-shift-blame-in-crash-that-killed-two-oakton-high-students/3596155/

From that link:

"A nationally known crash expert also testified, supporting the prosecution. He said the BMW's sophisticated data recorder showed Shahid accelerated from 60 to 81 mph and never applied the brakes."

Elsewhere I saw one of the passengers of the BMW said that he thought the driver accelerated before the collision. Was he trying to go around the SUV and missed? Was he trying to brake and hit the wrong pedal? Was he trying to beat the light? This seems the most likely.

[Anonymous]

I assumed he was trying to beat the light.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An update from today’s proceedings. I really feel for the 4Runner driver.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/defense-tries-to-shift-blame-in-crash-that-killed-two-oakton-high-students/3596155/

From that link:

"A nationally known crash expert also testified, supporting the prosecution. He said the BMW's sophisticated data recorder showed Shahid accelerated from 60 to 81 mph and never applied the brakes."

Elsewhere I saw one of the passengers of the BMW said that he thought the driver accelerated before the collision. Was he trying to go around the SUV and missed? Was he trying to brake and hit the wrong pedal? Was he trying to beat the light? This seems the most likely.

Greenspun must be hoping for a very favorably jury instruction. This is very, very bad for the defense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An update from today’s proceedings. I really feel for the 4Runner driver.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/defense-tries-to-shift-blame-in-crash-that-killed-two-oakton-high-students/3596155/

From that link:

"A nationally known crash expert also testified, supporting the prosecution. He said the BMW's sophisticated data recorder showed Shahid accelerated from 60 to 81 mph and never applied the brakes."

Elsewhere I saw one of the passengers of the BMW said that he thought the driver accelerated before the collision. Was he trying to go around the SUV and missed? Was he trying to brake and hit the wrong pedal? Was he trying to beat the light? This seems the most likely.

Greenspun is a POS.

[Anonymous]

The forensic evidence seems extremely damaging.

From the article, it sounds like Shahid's attorney tried to trick the 4 Runner driver into testifying that he turned into Shahid, but he didn't fall for it ("Phan pushed back, saying, 'I was stationary and that car struck me, slammed into me.'"). It sucks that the 4 Runner driver had to endure the cross exam and relive what was no doubt a traumatic experience due to Shahid's refusal to acknowledge his guilt.