Raiders' Henry Ruggs in fatal accident - will be charged with DUI resulting in death

[Dante84]

Update: Not a rumor, actually happened. Story developing.

Per TMZ: 10:27 AM PT -- A source close to Ruggs tells us the NFL'er is expected to be OK. The condition of the other people involved in the crash is still unclear.

10:40 AM PT -- A law enforcement source tells us at least one person involved in the crash has died. Ruggs' attorney, David Chesnoff, tells TMZ Sports, "On behalf of our client Henry Ruggs III we are conducting our own investigation as of this writing and ask everyone to reserve judgment until all the facts are gathered."

A lot of rumors floating around, and there was a pretty bad vehicular accident last night in Las Vegas.

I have no idea if Ruggs was involved as the internet claims.

I did put a call in but I've gotten absolutely nothing back https://t.co/S16JxGqmJT

— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) November 2, 2021

Update: TMZ has the story:

Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was involved in a serious car accident in Las Vegas early Tuesday morning. https://t.co/4ksgaIQAdz

— TMZ (@TMZ) November 2, 2021

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Coach

To be honest, I'd be surprised.

The Britt Reid is kind of a precedent to this, in my mind (albeit, the girl didn't get killed, but still had suffered traumatic injuries).

If this was any ordinary Joe, yeah, I can see 2-20 years in prison for this.

But since this is a NFL player (or coach), I'd be very surprised if he does jail-time, to be honest.

Britt's time will come. The legal process just moves very slowly. His court date is set for April 18, 2022.

https://www.fourstateshomepage.com/n...crash-charges/

[George Liquor]

There's like 500,000 ubers/taxis in Las Vegas. What an awful way to throw it all away.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yeah - this is one of those things that kinda used to be self evident and now will get you dragged on social media.

Matt Damon comes out there during the height of the Metoo thing and says "hey, there's a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?" and suddenly he's public enemy number one. Why? **** if I know - yeah, there's ABSOLUTELY a difference between those things. Degrees matter.

And while the add campaign says "Buzzed driving IS drunk driving..." I think there's probably still grounds to draw a distinction between driving with a .10 and a .25.

Should you be driving at a .10? Nope. Have many (most) of us done it? Probably. But I suspect most of us haven't gone out there at 3x the legal limit before.

Yeah - we still live in a world where degrees matter. At least they should. And if I'm a betting man, I'm gonna say that Ruggs wasn't out there at a .09 and put himself into the back of a car at 90 mph. Because man, his car is smashed. He had to have been flying.

It'd be hard, if ever put in a situation, to choose between riding with a clinical alcoholic who'd blow .08 and any average dipshit driver selected at random.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by kgrund

Would you feel the same way if he was texting?

No. They are not the same thing. Not nearly as harsh. A person should still be punished though.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by kgrund

Would you feel the same way if he was texting?

Once you look at the fiery mangled mess of cars and imagine how fast and reckless you would have to drive on a city street to have that outcome, then add texting to it... absolutely.

[manchambo]

Maybe I'm getting soft in old age, but these days I look at a guy like Ruggs as a kid. And I just keep thinking: how is the world going to become a better place if this kid goes to jail? Isn't it likely that going to jail will just make him worse, potentially dangerous, more likely to do bad things in the future?

Obviously there need to be consequences for actions like this, but I just can't help thinking jail only tends to make things worse for a person who doesn't need to be separate from society for safety reasons.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

It'd be hard, if ever put in a situation, to choose between riding with a clinical alcoholic who'd blow .08 and any average dipshit driver selected at random.

That's my understanding of .08, that you would be pretty damn surprised to find out you're over the legal limit if you ever had to be tested.

Of course, the flip side of that is typically probable cause and giving a cop a reason to suspect drunk/tipsy/buzzed driving in the first place.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Britt's time will come. The legal process just moves very slowly. His court date is set for April 18, 2022.

https://www.fourstateshomepage.com/n...crash-charges/

Yeah, I know that the legal process moves very slowly, but I would be very surprised, that's all.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by manchambo

Maybe I'm getting soft in old age, but these days I look at a guy like Ruggs as a kid. And I just keep thinking: how is the world going to become a better place if this kid goes to jail? Isn't it likely that going to jail will just make him worse, potentially dangerous, more likely to do bad things in the future?

Obviously there need to be consequences for actions like this, but I just can't help thinking jail only tends to make things worse for a person who doesn't need to be separate from society for safety reasons.

I mean - this is the debate over prisons as a whole, and the responses are myriad.

But ultimately it boils down to 3 main factors:

1) Specific deterrence: Drunk drivers have high rates of recidivism. By getting this particular drunk driver off the street, you lessen the risk to society as a whole of being injured by him the NEXT time he drives drunk.

2) General deterrence: By throwing his ass in jail, you show the rest of society that things are far different than they were back in the day when the sheriff escorted your granddad home when he'd had a few too many that night and got pulled over.

3) The retributive element: Henry Ruggs engaged in behavior that killed someone. As a society we owe it to the family of that person to ensure that Ruggs is punished for it. That he suffers just as you will now have to suffer for the loss of your loved one.

I mean ultimately think of the logical extremes to your argument here and apply it to murder. Murderers have extremely low rates of recidivism. By and large, they've already killed the person they wanted dead (very few killers are random, high volume killers). The odds of them killing anyone else are pretty low. In many ways they could go back to be model citizens now that they've murdered their ex-wife. But methinks maybe we shouldn't condone that sort of behavior.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by manchambo

how is the world going to become a better place if this kid goes to jail? Isn't it likely that going to jail will just make him worse, potentially dangerous, more likely to do bad things in the future?

Agreed. Send him to the Kansas City Chiefs!!!!

[hawkchief]

Originally Posted by manchambo

Maybe I'm getting soft in old age, but these days I look at a guy like Ruggs as a kid. And I just keep thinking: how is the world going to become a better place if this kid goes to jail? Isn't it likely that going to jail will just make him worse, potentially dangerous, more likely to do bad things in the future?

Obviously there need to be consequences for actions like this, but I just can't help thinking jail only tends to make things worse for a person who doesn't need to be separate from society for safety reasons.

I'm guessing you'd feel differently if one of your family members was killed by a drunk driver.

[ping2000]

Originally Posted by manchambo

Maybe I'm getting soft in old age, but these days I look at a guy like Ruggs as a kid. And I just keep thinking: how is the world going to become a better place if this kid goes to jail? Isn't it likely that going to jail will just make him worse, potentially dangerous, more likely to do bad things in the future?

Obviously there need to be consequences for actions like this, but I just can't help thinking jail only tends to make things worse for a person who doesn't need to be separate from society for safety reasons.

A person is dead. There needs to be consequences if he was driving impaired. If your kid breaks a window, and says they are sorry, he should still pay for it out of his allowance. Being sorry doesn't absolve you from punishment. I have no sympathy for anyone this day and age that doesn't understand you shouldn't drive impaired. How could you not get that message? Especially someone who has a entire organization behind him that would gladly send someone to drive him home.

[ping2000]

Also, I don't think the kid is evil or irredeemable, but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't be punished. There are always consequences for your actions. You can be sorry, and you can be forgiven, but you should still face punishment.

[Sassy Squatch]

Even if he ultimately gets a lighter sentence for whatever reason will he ever be the same player? Broken hip is at the very least a career altering injury.

[BlackOp]

This might not apply to this scenario....but what if the person that died was driving drunk too.

I know that strip of road...and where that accident happened is very strange. I'm trying to figure out how a rear impact like that happened.

She wouldn't have been sitting still at that point in road...it's an eight lane artery through west Vegas.

All I can think is he must have been flying...and she switched lanes not realizing he was coming up that fast...it would have been vacant out and maybe not paying attention.