Finally, a young reckless driver who accepts some responsibility for his actions
07-13-16 | 06:42 PM
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From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
Finally, a young reckless driver who accepts some responsibility for his actions
In today's world of "I'm always right" and "Screw the traffic laws, I'll do what I want", here's something that we don't see very often....a young, reckless driver that, after tragically killing three people and totaling two cars, actually takes some blame for his own actions and admits how stupid he was. This crash, BTW, took place not very far from where I live.
I've posted before, in several different threads, that, though it's not a universal pattern by any means, in general, the most reckless drivers as a group I've seen are young male drivers in V8 Mustangs.....followed closely, in second place, by male BMW jocks. This was, ironically, a young 20 year old in a BMW M235.....doing 115 MPH in a suburban 45-MPH neighborhood. It was his dad's leased car.
(That, of course, does not mean that all Mustang or BMW jocks are dangerous or drive recklessly, just that, over the years, I've seen more than their share doing do).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...pm_local_pop_b
By Dan Morse July 13 at 1:48 PM
Behind the wheel of a turbocharged BMW, the 20-year-old shot down River Road in Bethesda at 115 mph — 70 over the posted limit. He was heading home after picking up Chinese food for his family.
Ahead, on the other side of a slight rise, a Chevrolet Volt carrying a family of four was about to make a left turn from the opposing lanes. They were on their way to a high school play and were five minutes from curtain time.
The crash was thunderous.
The BMW slammed the Volt broadside, killing three of the family members despite the heroics of horrified witnesses: the men who lifted an uprooted metal sign to try to pry open a door of the Volt; the ex-CIA officer who smashed a tool he had in his pocket into the car’s rear window; the petite doctor who was passed through the broken window into the Volt to try to give medical help.
“I did it! It’s all my fault!” the BMW driver could be heard yelling.
That driver — Ogulcan Atakoglu — signaled in court records this week his intent to plead guilty to three counts of vehicular manslaughter after a lengthy police investigation into the Feb. 27 crash near Walt Whitman High School. The results of that probe, including Atakoglu’s speed and statements from witnesses, are detailed by Montgomery County police in a 16-page collision reconstruction report obtained through a public records request by The Washington Post.
Atakoglu agreed to the plea ahead of anticipated indictments, according to court records. “He wants to take responsibility,” said his attorney, David Felsen. “He has been profoundly distraught since the moment this happened.”
Atakoglu, who has a prior conviction for negligent driving and speeding, was sober and wasn’t racing. He tried to avoid the crash, hitting the brakes, but struck the Volt at about 75 mph.
By pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter, he is admitting that his speed alone was a form of gross negligence. The plea agreement is not binding, and Atakoglu could back out before a hearing scheduled for Aug. 8 before Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Mary Beth McCormick.
He could face up to 30 years in prison under Maryland statute. State sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, call for a penalty of three months to 12 years in the case. Prosecutors can seek the maximum penalty, according to court records.
The survivor from the Volt, Helena Buarque de Macedo, was 15 when in an instant she lost her mother, father and only sibling. She was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries but returned to Whitman in time to finish her sophomore year. Principal Alan Goodwin said she could be seen talking to her friends, appearing, at least, to somehow be getting by.
“She seems to be doing all right, considering the horrors she is going through,” he said. “She did well in school. She’s a bright girl.”
Helena lives with grandparents in Bethesda and has support from extended family, Goodwin said.
Last month, she and an uncle went to Whitman’s graduation ceremony to honor her 18-year-old brother, Thomas. Known as Tommy, he was an exceptional student who had taken Advanced Placement courses in physics, economics and multivariable calculus and was aiming to attend an Ivy League college.
“We are just thrilled to have her back,” Goodwin said from the stage.
In front of a cheering crowd, Helena was handed Tommy’s diploma.
‘Out of nowhere’
Atakoglu, the son of an accomplished jazz pianist and composer from Turkey, had attended the Bullis School. In 2013, he wrote and narrated a nine-minute documentary about the Civilian Conservation Corps that used his dad’s music in the background. “He is an articulate, polite kid,” said Felsen, his attorney.
That same year, police alleged that he was driving erratically and at more than 85 mph on Interstate 270, according to a recorded court hearing. A District Court judge found Atakoglu guilty of reckless driving and an unsafe lane change. The judge reduced the speeding violation to 64 mph because the officer hadn’t calibrated his speedometer. Atakoglu paid $639 in fees and court costs. On appeal, Felsen struck a plea deal with prosecutors that reduced the reckless driving count to negligent driving.
“I’d like to apologize for speeding and behaving in a negligent manner on the roads,” Atakoglu told a judge. “And I’ll make sure it won’t happen again, Your Honor.”
On Sept. 23, 2015, Atakoglu was cited for negligent driving and tailgating in Rockville. The case was dismissed in court after the police officer acknowledged that he couldn’t positively identify Atakoglu.
On the night of the River Road crash, Atakoglu went to a friend’s house before picking up the Chinese food, according to the collision report. He headed west on River Road, away from Washington, toward his family’s house between Rockville and Potomac. The blue 2016 BMW M235i was being leased by his father, according to Felsen.
The Buarque de Macedo family lived nearby in a Bethesda home where Michael and Alessandra, both 52, ran successful software-development and accounting businesses, according to friends.
It wasn’t uncommon for families in the area to head to a play at Whitman. On tap: the 1982 comedy “Noises Off.”
In a 2016 Volt electric car, the family was traveling east on River Road when their vehicle stopped just before 6:55 p.m. in the far-left turn lane near Pyle Road, preparing to turn and cross River Road toward the school.
Crash investigators later reviewed information in the two cars’ “black box” event recorders, spoke with witnesses and estimated sight lines for that hour just after sunset in late February. They concluded that the drivers of the BMW and the Volt could see each other’s headlights after the BMW crested the hill — a spread of about 1,000 feet.
Two motorists lined up behind the Volt, also on their way to the play, described the Volt driver as cautious and hesitant, waiting for cars to pass. When the Volt finally crossed River Road, it accelerated from 2 mph to 10 mph, according to the reconstruction report.
It isn’t clear from the report when the Volt driver — Michael Buarque de Macedo — spotted the BMW’s headlights. But investigators concluded that at that time of night, with headlights coming directly at him, it would be hard to gauge speed.
With less than 800 feet between him and the intersection, Atakoglu was still traveling at 115 mph, according to the collision report, fast enough to cover about half the length of a football field every second.
In a statement he wrote for police, Atakoglu described what happened: “A car coming in the opposite direction on River Road made a left turn in front of me, and I flashed my lights at it.”
People in the car behind the Volt saw the BMW coming, as one witness put it, “out of nowhere.”
“We all screamed and I said: ‘They’re going to hit,’ ” she said.
Atakoglu braked 2.5 seconds before impact, according to investigators, and swerved slightly right, ramming into the Volt after it had crossed most of the intersection and pushing it into a ditch.
“The impact was tremendous,” a witness reported. “Glass went everywhere,” said another.
Immediately behind the Volt, the driver of a Mini Cooper, a security consultant who had previously worked as a CIA officer, jumped out and ran to the Volt. He and others tried to pry the door and then he smashed the back window. All the while, he told detectives, he saw no response from anyone in the car.
Behind the Mini Cooper were another driver, her two children and two of their friends. She went to the Volt, holding a flashlight while others tried to open the door.
About the same time, Raya Kheirbek, a palliative care physician, happened upon the scene with her son. She saw a crushed car but no ambulances yet. She ran to it, telling several people she was a doctor.
A man lifted the 5-foot-1, 115-pound physician through a broken window of the Volt. She wiggled into the front.
To her left, she saw the slumped driver, his head leaning into a deployed air bag. He was gasping — terrible sounds Kheirbek recognized in someone dying.
Leaning on the driver was a front-seat passenger, a tall young man. Kheirbek checked but could find no pulse, she told The Post in a recent interview expanding on an account she previously told Bethesda Beat, a daily local news service.
Kheirbek wiggled back, looking to her right: a woman with no movement in her chest.
“I heard a voice,” Kheirbek said.
To her left was a young girl with long hair covering her face.
“Are you okay?” Kheirbek asked.
Helena Buarque de Macedo moved her head slightly.
Kheirbek put her arm around the girl.
“Stay strong,” Kheirbek said. “Help is going to be on the way.”
I've posted before, in several different threads, that, though it's not a universal pattern by any means, in general, the most reckless drivers as a group I've seen are young male drivers in V8 Mustangs.....followed closely, in second place, by male BMW jocks. This was, ironically, a young 20 year old in a BMW M235.....doing 115 MPH in a suburban 45-MPH neighborhood. It was his dad's leased car.
(That, of course, does not mean that all Mustang or BMW jocks are dangerous or drive recklessly, just that, over the years, I've seen more than their share doing do).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...pm_local_pop_b
By Dan Morse July 13 at 1:48 PM
Behind the wheel of a turbocharged BMW, the 20-year-old shot down River Road in Bethesda at 115 mph — 70 over the posted limit. He was heading home after picking up Chinese food for his family.
Ahead, on the other side of a slight rise, a Chevrolet Volt carrying a family of four was about to make a left turn from the opposing lanes. They were on their way to a high school play and were five minutes from curtain time.
The crash was thunderous.
The BMW slammed the Volt broadside, killing three of the family members despite the heroics of horrified witnesses: the men who lifted an uprooted metal sign to try to pry open a door of the Volt; the ex-CIA officer who smashed a tool he had in his pocket into the car’s rear window; the petite doctor who was passed through the broken window into the Volt to try to give medical help.
“I did it! It’s all my fault!” the BMW driver could be heard yelling.
That driver — Ogulcan Atakoglu — signaled in court records this week his intent to plead guilty to three counts of vehicular manslaughter after a lengthy police investigation into the Feb. 27 crash near Walt Whitman High School. The results of that probe, including Atakoglu’s speed and statements from witnesses, are detailed by Montgomery County police in a 16-page collision reconstruction report obtained through a public records request by The Washington Post.
Atakoglu agreed to the plea ahead of anticipated indictments, according to court records. “He wants to take responsibility,” said his attorney, David Felsen. “He has been profoundly distraught since the moment this happened.”
Atakoglu, who has a prior conviction for negligent driving and speeding, was sober and wasn’t racing. He tried to avoid the crash, hitting the brakes, but struck the Volt at about 75 mph.
By pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter, he is admitting that his speed alone was a form of gross negligence. The plea agreement is not binding, and Atakoglu could back out before a hearing scheduled for Aug. 8 before Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Mary Beth McCormick.
He could face up to 30 years in prison under Maryland statute. State sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, call for a penalty of three months to 12 years in the case. Prosecutors can seek the maximum penalty, according to court records.
The survivor from the Volt, Helena Buarque de Macedo, was 15 when in an instant she lost her mother, father and only sibling. She was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries but returned to Whitman in time to finish her sophomore year. Principal Alan Goodwin said she could be seen talking to her friends, appearing, at least, to somehow be getting by.
“She seems to be doing all right, considering the horrors she is going through,” he said. “She did well in school. She’s a bright girl.”
Helena lives with grandparents in Bethesda and has support from extended family, Goodwin said.
Last month, she and an uncle went to Whitman’s graduation ceremony to honor her 18-year-old brother, Thomas. Known as Tommy, he was an exceptional student who had taken Advanced Placement courses in physics, economics and multivariable calculus and was aiming to attend an Ivy League college.
“We are just thrilled to have her back,” Goodwin said from the stage.
In front of a cheering crowd, Helena was handed Tommy’s diploma.
‘Out of nowhere’
Atakoglu, the son of an accomplished jazz pianist and composer from Turkey, had attended the Bullis School. In 2013, he wrote and narrated a nine-minute documentary about the Civilian Conservation Corps that used his dad’s music in the background. “He is an articulate, polite kid,” said Felsen, his attorney.
That same year, police alleged that he was driving erratically and at more than 85 mph on Interstate 270, according to a recorded court hearing. A District Court judge found Atakoglu guilty of reckless driving and an unsafe lane change. The judge reduced the speeding violation to 64 mph because the officer hadn’t calibrated his speedometer. Atakoglu paid $639 in fees and court costs. On appeal, Felsen struck a plea deal with prosecutors that reduced the reckless driving count to negligent driving.
“I’d like to apologize for speeding and behaving in a negligent manner on the roads,” Atakoglu told a judge. “And I’ll make sure it won’t happen again, Your Honor.”
On Sept. 23, 2015, Atakoglu was cited for negligent driving and tailgating in Rockville. The case was dismissed in court after the police officer acknowledged that he couldn’t positively identify Atakoglu.
On the night of the River Road crash, Atakoglu went to a friend’s house before picking up the Chinese food, according to the collision report. He headed west on River Road, away from Washington, toward his family’s house between Rockville and Potomac. The blue 2016 BMW M235i was being leased by his father, according to Felsen.
The Buarque de Macedo family lived nearby in a Bethesda home where Michael and Alessandra, both 52, ran successful software-development and accounting businesses, according to friends.
It wasn’t uncommon for families in the area to head to a play at Whitman. On tap: the 1982 comedy “Noises Off.”
In a 2016 Volt electric car, the family was traveling east on River Road when their vehicle stopped just before 6:55 p.m. in the far-left turn lane near Pyle Road, preparing to turn and cross River Road toward the school.
Crash investigators later reviewed information in the two cars’ “black box” event recorders, spoke with witnesses and estimated sight lines for that hour just after sunset in late February. They concluded that the drivers of the BMW and the Volt could see each other’s headlights after the BMW crested the hill — a spread of about 1,000 feet.
Two motorists lined up behind the Volt, also on their way to the play, described the Volt driver as cautious and hesitant, waiting for cars to pass. When the Volt finally crossed River Road, it accelerated from 2 mph to 10 mph, according to the reconstruction report.
It isn’t clear from the report when the Volt driver — Michael Buarque de Macedo — spotted the BMW’s headlights. But investigators concluded that at that time of night, with headlights coming directly at him, it would be hard to gauge speed.
With less than 800 feet between him and the intersection, Atakoglu was still traveling at 115 mph, according to the collision report, fast enough to cover about half the length of a football field every second.
In a statement he wrote for police, Atakoglu described what happened: “A car coming in the opposite direction on River Road made a left turn in front of me, and I flashed my lights at it.”
People in the car behind the Volt saw the BMW coming, as one witness put it, “out of nowhere.”
“We all screamed and I said: ‘They’re going to hit,’ ” she said.
Atakoglu braked 2.5 seconds before impact, according to investigators, and swerved slightly right, ramming into the Volt after it had crossed most of the intersection and pushing it into a ditch.
“The impact was tremendous,” a witness reported. “Glass went everywhere,” said another.
Immediately behind the Volt, the driver of a Mini Cooper, a security consultant who had previously worked as a CIA officer, jumped out and ran to the Volt. He and others tried to pry the door and then he smashed the back window. All the while, he told detectives, he saw no response from anyone in the car.
Behind the Mini Cooper were another driver, her two children and two of their friends. She went to the Volt, holding a flashlight while others tried to open the door.
About the same time, Raya Kheirbek, a palliative care physician, happened upon the scene with her son. She saw a crushed car but no ambulances yet. She ran to it, telling several people she was a doctor.
A man lifted the 5-foot-1, 115-pound physician through a broken window of the Volt. She wiggled into the front.
To her left, she saw the slumped driver, his head leaning into a deployed air bag. He was gasping — terrible sounds Kheirbek recognized in someone dying.
Leaning on the driver was a front-seat passenger, a tall young man. Kheirbek checked but could find no pulse, she told The Post in a recent interview expanding on an account she previously told Bethesda Beat, a daily local news service.
Kheirbek wiggled back, looking to her right: a woman with no movement in her chest.
“I heard a voice,” Kheirbek said.
To her left was a young girl with long hair covering her face.
“Are you okay?” Kheirbek asked.
Helena Buarque de Macedo moved her head slightly.
Kheirbek put her arm around the girl.
“Stay strong,” Kheirbek said. “Help is going to be on the way.”
Last edited by mmarshall; 07-13-16 at 06:47 PM.
07-13-16 | 07:50 PM
#2
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Well, definitely not like Ethan Couch, the "affluenza" kid that still has no remorse. Tragic that 3 people are dead and this kid is going to spend most of his adult life in prison, but at least he owned up to it. 115mph. Jesus.
07-14-16 | 07:03 AM
#3
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This accident is pretty close to home for me. The high school those kids went to, and where the family was going that night is where I went to high school. The people in the volt were the kids and grandkids of a woman that I work with. When I was in high school three girls I went to school with were killed in a one vehicle crash about 1/4 mile up River Road from that spot. Thats IMHO a pretty dangerous stretch of roadway. People come down that hill way too fast, and pulling out from Pyle Rd there or trying to turn left across River Rd onto Pyle Rd is difficult because it is very hard to judge the speed of oncoming cars coming down that hill, especially at night. I'm sure at that speed the driver looked, saw headlights at the top of the hill, and went, not expecting the driver to be going nearly 3 times the posted speed limit. At 115MPH he was at the bottom of that hill pretty darn quick.
The crash that happened when I was in high school also involved a high powered BMW. Those girls were hurrying home because they were late for curfew. In MD new drivers in the first year they have their license cannot drive between 12-5AM without an adult in the car. They came down that hill and up the other side, when they got to the top she lost control of the car and hit a tree, splitting the BMW in half.
I remember what the school was like after that happened. Black drapes, memorials, grievance counselors, the girl that survived this crash has had a tough time, everybody at the school has too. I know her grandmother has.
Glad he took responsibility, but my guess is thats just a legal maneuver. Cannot let kids be in control of these high powered cars when they can't handle that control. With this driving history, if he were my kid he'd have a Chevy Aveo if he had a car at all, and no way he would drive my M BMW.
The crash that happened when I was in high school also involved a high powered BMW. Those girls were hurrying home because they were late for curfew. In MD new drivers in the first year they have their license cannot drive between 12-5AM without an adult in the car. They came down that hill and up the other side, when they got to the top she lost control of the car and hit a tree, splitting the BMW in half.
I remember what the school was like after that happened. Black drapes, memorials, grievance counselors, the girl that survived this crash has had a tough time, everybody at the school has too. I know her grandmother has.
Glad he took responsibility, but my guess is thats just a legal maneuver. Cannot let kids be in control of these high powered cars when they can't handle that control. With this driving history, if he were my kid he'd have a Chevy Aveo if he had a car at all, and no way he would drive my M BMW.
07-14-16 | 07:16 AM
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07-14-16 | 07:28 AM
#7
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Tragic that 3 people are dead and this kid is going to spend most of his adult life in prison, but at least he owned up to it. 115mph. Jesus.
Last edited by mmarshall; 07-14-16 at 07:41 AM.
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07-14-16 | 07:32 AM
#8
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The D.C. area (trust me) is full of traffic everywhere, often even late at night....arguably the second-most congested region in the country behind Los Angeles. There's almost no such thing as a deserted road around here, unless it is under construction or blocked off by fire/police.
Last edited by mmarshall; 07-14-16 at 07:37 AM.
07-14-16 | 07:35 AM
#9
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Yeah....115 MPH is not child's play. But, given this guy's level of remorse and admittance if his own stupidity, he might not get a sentence quite that long, especially if he successfully plea-bargains. My guess is 20 to 30 years....maybe less with parole, or he can convince the judge or jury that he should ultimately get another chance.
You're an easy touch
07-14-16 | 07:46 AM
#10
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Here's what I modified it to:
Originally Posted by mmarshall
..........though, if the article is accurate, he has already done that in the past for previous offenses. It will be interesting to see if the judge or jury throw the book at him this time....especially since, this time, he REALLY seems scared.
Originally Posted by SW15LS
Which is why his attorneys advised him to show "this level of remorse and admittance of his own stupidity". Thats why I'm not that impressed.
“I did it! It’s all my fault!” the BMW driver could be heard yelling.
Last edited by mmarshall; 07-14-16 at 07:50 AM.
07-14-16 | 09:09 AM
#11
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You get that from a typed article with a quote from him? I don't see how you can judge someone's level of remorse and emotional state from one quote in a newspaper article.
I hope the judge isn't so easily swayed. He's a multiple offender and now people are dead. He belongs in jail, and he should never be allowed to operate a motor vehicle again IMHO.
I hope the judge isn't so easily swayed. He's a multiple offender and now people are dead. He belongs in jail, and he should never be allowed to operate a motor vehicle again IMHO.
07-14-16 | 09:59 AM
#12
That's horrible and sad that this girl lost both of her parents, and only sibling, due to this idiot driving recklessly. I just can't fathom driving that fast in a residential neighborhood. I am weary enough as it is driving at the speed limit in my neighborhood knowing that there could possibly be a child, animal, or car that could pop out in my way at any moment.
07-14-16 | 10:22 AM
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07-14-16 | 10:26 AM
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Again, not impressed. You have to be a true, deep down sociopath to kill 3 people with your car in this manner, and not have any reaction at all. Just because he didn't intend to kill anyone, and then is mortified when he did is meaningless when driving on surface streets at 115 mph. It's a consequence that is totally foreseeable to happen. I don't see any reason why he should be given leniency because he immediately recognized he did a really bad thing--a girl is orphaned, and watched her entire family die right in front of her eyes. This kid needs to be accountable for that.