Voters boot Lara, Arroyo

Remind me again how that whole “war on drugs” thing is going. And they don’t even jail for simple possession, which is the equivalent of speeding.

In the Commonwealth you don't even get charged with a crime when you carry illegal loaded guns with illegal extended magazines to the TSA screening checkpoint, even though there are mandatory minimum sentences in law for that very thing.

I think she is in the clear with the courts. And once she files bankruptcy she won't have to pay the homeowner for the damage. That's how she will "take responsibility."

There's a fair amount of technical background explaining how the black box recorded the speed of 27mph when she hit the fence, not when she swerved. The black box data confirms the police analysis of her going twice the speed limit initially.

Technical details aside, it doesn't make logical sense why wouldn't she just slam on the brakes and stop safely or have a minor fender bender if she was actually going 27.

We don't know.

Long answer:
Lara has a report from an accident reconstruction firm that received the black box from her vehicle and it recorded 27 mph at some point (Lara claims it was when she reacted to the other car). We don't have that report and its context in any form other than the comments from Lara at her press conference.

The police published a report ( https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23872771/20230712162313066-1.pdf ) from the officer doing accident reconstruction at the scene with info from the witness(es) and with measurements of distance and assumed reaction times (very generous ones) to determine with 2 different methods that clearing the involved distances required her to be doing at least 53 mph on the road at the beginning of her reaction. Additionally, he states if she had been doing the speed limit then she would have covered over 5x the distance necessary to stop before hitting the house (which also matches really well with the useful estimate of 2x the speed needs 4x the stopping distance because kinetic energy equals one-half of mass times velocity squared).

AND, in that report, the officer was also able to estimate the speeds at the changes in driving surfaces (the first collision which was the fence went from sidewalk to yard). And he calculated that to be around 20-30 mph...which conveniently matches her report.

AND, we know that vehicle black boxes only save a bit of data leading up to collisions and a bit afterwards based on things like sudden deceleration and/or airbag deployment triggering the save events. This means that it likely would NOT have a record of her driving down the road (when the officer calculates her doing 53 mph at the beginning of her reaction) and would only have information when it thought an incident had occurred...like striking the fence/sidewalk, at which point her claim of 27 mph matches the calculated 20-30 mph range, which people are inferring comes from why her statements actually agree with the police report in that regard even if she's attempting to infer the 27 mph was how fast she was going on the street itself as well.

you know i’m on here all the time, right? i’m not the most active commenter but i read pretty much every post and comment therein.

to say that Lara’s unlicensed driving isn’t at the forefront of the vitriol towards her is just… i don’t know how else to say it, but that’s just not true.

since the incident i’ve participated in several conversations on this website that point to driving without a license – “FOR NEARLY TEN YEARS!!!” – as a measure of the Councilor’s character.

the legal process is playing out in the way it should, seemingly free of impropriety. she was free to run for her seat again; the people spoke and she was unseated. yet there are still calls for her head.

further, there seems to be a very strong undertone of sticking it to the progressive woman, especially considering how vocal she is about her experience.

i am not her constituent, and i am not writing this in defense of her. again, comments like the one above just give me a bit of pause.

i’m questioning the means, as you say. i’m questioning the certainty with which people are defaming her character, as though it is self-evident that she is corrupt.

honestly, i agree with the outcome. the people spoke and she lost her seat. i am also befuddled that people are calling for jail time, etc.

Most auto insurance policies won't cover claims if the vehicle was driven by someone who couldn't legally operate it.

Lara can't have driving insurance when she wasn't a licensed driver. The car owner's insurance likely won't pay for the same reason.

The homeowner is going to have to, at the very least, pay a deductible plus go through all the hassles of dealing with her homeowner's insurance. Not to mention the trauma of no longer feeling safe in her house - that must have been damn scary.