Image via The Independent/YouTube
Car theft is about more than just someone taking your stuff or everyone’s insurance rates skyrocketing, although those are part of the equation. Even worse, car theft fuels violent crimes and costs lives. A horrific example of this played out in the UK recently when a father and son fleeing from police in a stolen Land Rover wrecked out into another vehicle, killing that driver.
Motorcyclist runs from cops, but he also runs out of gas.
Police were trying to corner the father and son who were in the stolen Defender, but 44-year-old Marcin Jablonski decided to drive through fields of crops, destroying quite a few in the process. At first police tried pursuing through the first field, but they pulled back and instead tried driving on the roads surrounding the farm.
In the meantime, Jablonski, who Daily Mail says was drunk at the time, exited one field, drove through a construction site, and got back on a two-lane road.
However, the police helicopter watching the scene from overhead and helping direct officers below noticed something was wrong with the steering on the Land Rover Defender. At first, Jablonski was on the left shoulder of the road, then he suddenly got back on the pavement, then veered over the painted line and collided with a Nissan Juke going the other way.
Tragically, 28-year-old Aisatou Mballow Baldeh was critically injured when her crossover flipped onto its roof. She was declared dead at the crash site.
Knowing what we do about the two vehicles, it’s unsurprising that Jablonski and his 26-year-old son Thomas Urbaniak only suffered minor injuries.
While there’s no bringing Baldeh back, some justice has been served after Jablonski admitted guilt for the crash in court, receiving a sentence of 11 years in jail.
This is the most tragic part of the car theft epidemic, with so many innocent lives lost. Some are killed by drivers who behave incredibly recklessly in vehicles they don’t own. Every effort to stop this dangerous trend needs to be deployed, instead of treating car thieves as if they were victims.
Images via The Independent/YouTube
