Good luck buddy, you will need it.

I think his luck ran out. That man destroyed a family because he was stupid. The laws need to get tougher on drunk drivers. I hope they lock him up for a long time. A parents worst nightmare is losing a child, I can only imagine what that poor family must be going through. My condolences.

Throw the book at him. Lock him up and throw the key away.

Drivers that are issued 24 hr suspensions should have their wheels impounded for at least a month or more and I don't give a damn if it is buddy boy's logging truck, mom's car or whatever. More than one 24 hr suspension in a defined period of time should result in a lengthy driving prohibition. Hit em where it hurts. Shouldn't be too hard to catch them. The streets of PG are teeming with impaired drivers.

This family has been destroyed financially, emotionally and physically all because this man couldn't call a cab and HAD to drive drunk. I'm sorry - there are NO excuses for driving under the influence.

Any assests Soltvedt has should be seized and immediately turned over to the victims. But most likely his defense lawyer will get them.....

If the man if found guilty, this would be a good example of a case when a judge should have the authority to assess the financial loss to the victims, then make the guilty part pay a set percentage of his income every month to them until the amount assessed is paid off with interest. I think this should be done in all cases where the victims deserve compensation for loss of income or personal and property damage.

Let's also remember that there were several opportunities to stop this guy before the damage happened, and nobody did what had to be done. It's not just his fault. We all need to be more proactive.
Somebody should have stopped this guy when they had the chance, no matter what it took.

Several opportunities to stop him? Please enlighten us.

Somebody stopped him, but let him go. Failed to intervene. This person notified a nearby police officer at a traffic check, who refused to take action, and cited a bunch of flimsy excuses why.

Did you find this out from the media or the coffee shop? I don't think that you even remotely know all the facts.For instance, your post from a while back attempting to explain the firing mechanism of a RCMP 9mm S&W was incorrect. The RCMP standard issue 9mm S&W does not revert to a single action after the first double action round has been fired. It is a double action with each round fired.Wading into such sensitive issues with misinformation does not help anyone.

Hey, sorry I may have mixed up the S&W with another make, but many semi-auto sidearms do work as double/single and if I got my wires crossed, who cares ? I haven't played with them in years and don't care to, I just seem to remember the 9mm being double/single. So sue me.

If you got anywhere near the point of what I had been saying, you would realize that I was trying to say: "accidental firings can and do happen with semi-auto handguns, and people who don't handle them don't usually understand this" (however that particular make and model may or may not work). That's the point I was trying to make, for the over-analytical.

Now back to the topic:

As for the information I posted about this story, it was in the paper. Good lord, you're on the internet, why don't you search it before throwing a tantrum ?

I didn't just make it up for excitement.

Also, for the purportedly misinformed, the point I was trying to make above is that we need to be more proactive if we want things like this not to happen. It can't always be somebody else's job. Sometimes we find ourselves involuntarily cast into the position of being "the person who has to do something" whether or not we are appreciative of the opportunity, and whether it is our job or not.

To be fair, one man did try to stop him, but didn't feel empowered enough to "do whatever it takes" to stop him. Fair enough. If he crossed the line, he'd be taking a big risk.

I've taken big risks to protect other people from harm many times. Sometimes it was my job, sometimes it wasn't. But I still do it today. It hasn't been my job for many years.

There needs to be more of us, I guess is what I'm trying to say, and I don't see it coming.

Reasonableman, I recall the story on this accident too. Someone did have an opportunity to make an attempt to stop this guy, having come up just short of getting physical with the guy to stop him then called the police. I seem to recall also that another driver witnessed the erratic driving of the perp, followed him down the highway and watched him weaving etc, called it in to no avail.

As for calling the locals when you witness or suspect something like this....first of all, you are put on hold, then when someone finally comes on the line they first of all want every single tid bit of information on you before they will even listen to what you have to say. Then you have to actually go down to the police station and hand deliver your first born child, then, and only then, will they consider, let me reiterate CONSIDER following up your complaint.

I sympathize with the RCMP and the number of complaints they have to deal with on a day to day basis. Where they draw the line on what is urgent and what is not, I do not know. But, I had my car broken into by a couple of kids a few years back, my neighbour witnessed, called me, I called the police while the darn kids were still cleaning out my car, while on the phone with the police watched the kids walking down the street, would the police hurry it up and get over there?? Not on your life. Vehicle being broken into by kids NOT IMPORTANT. why? The dispatcher asked me "do you have any idea how many calls we get like this every morning?.....we simply cannot respond to all of them!!!"...???

"Drivers that are issued 24 hr suspensions should have their wheels impounded for at least a month or more....... More than one 24 hr suspension in a defined period of time should result in a lengthy driving prohibition."

Wow, what a great idea. It sounds almost like the way the system already works. Glad you thought of it !