Well not really, but just as news worthy. The Times is reporting that Christopher Hayden, 19, crashed his car while passing around a bend resulting in a fatality. Shortly before the crash Hayden had been playing Gran Turismo in his car while pulled over to the side of the road.

What would be just another of the tragic hundreds of thousands of auto related deaths a year became news worthy because of this very tenuous video game link. Strangely enough at the end of the article and completely unrelated to the story is a brief list of "Killer Games" including Carmageddon and Manhunt. Hayden cleared of causing death by dangerous driving was convicted of dangerous driving. Nowhere in the article does anyone of authority much less the reporter claim that the game had anything to do with the terrible accident.

The strongest quote from the judge was, "When I heard he had a monitor screen that would come up from the dashboard of the car whereby he could play on the PlayStation a game of that sort, it didn’t seem to me to be particularly desirable."

Why the list of Killer Games at the end of the article? Is there some connection I am missing? Or is this just another example of yellow journalism?

Heh, I went to see Terminator 2 at the theater on its release day. After the movie was over, several young people exited talking about the film and I heard one of them remark, "I can drive just as good as Arnold". A group of them ran to a sub-compact Daihatsu looking car and I watched as the driver laid on the gas and proceeded to crash into a parked car.

I just stood in the parking lot watching various groups of people running around (I was waiting for the traffic to die down because other films had let out and the parking lot was in chaos). Observing the free for all, by the time I left there were 3 crashes. A local paper did a write up on the event and of course blamed the movie, without saying anything at all about young drivers or how much traffic was going through the parking lot.

From the Article: "Hayden and James Budden, 28, who was driving the BMW, were cleared of causing death by dangerous driving but found guilty of careless driving."

From the Article: "Mr Patrick said that Mrs Williams, of Verwood, Dorset, was driving at about 25mph and could not have avoided the crash. 'There was nothing that she could do.'"

Uh, no. This entire article smacks of biased reporting. This is clearly a case of slander towards video games. They had an unfortunate story and were able to link it to a media whipping boy, so they sensationalized a completely unrelated event. The games at the end have nothing to do with this article. The Times goes down in respect for publishing this drecht. Not that they had much to begin with.

At least the guy wasn't playing games while driving.

Egad, I never thought of that one! Will try tommorow. I'll let you know the results from the ICU.

Good thing the kid wasn't playing Sim City. He might have become a civil engineer.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this headline:

"Someone ate an NGage?!"

Egad, I never thought of that one! Will try tommorow. I'll let you know the results from the ICU.

Funny, I think I've typed this before. :p

Poor video games. Everyone know that the real culprit is the taco. Poor taco.

Wait, if the taco is guilty, what's with the "poor taco" then? Let the whole weight of the law fall on its sorry head, I say!! Throw it in a cell and let it rot!! Damn taco.

And I'm sure it wasn't even a legal citizen either.

It not the taco that matters. Its the sauce. Blame it on the sauce!

From the comments attached to the end of the article it looks like the rest of the public agrees that it was a pointless bash at gaming...the ones who didn't mention video games placed the responsibility for the crash on the drivers - where it should be.

yellow as pee