After reading a thread on another board, I felt it might be interesting to create a poll here. Just for shits-n-grins.

The situation:

Say Bob wakes up on his 18th birthday, which happens to be a beautiful Saturday morning in June. As he's sitting down, eating his wheaties, he sees some guy cruise down his street, on a "crotch rocket" and thinks to himself, "Wow, that guy is cool. I think I'm gonna take the $12k that mom and dad gave me for my birthday and go buy one of those."

So he heads down to the local motorcycle dealership, which happens to be a Suzuki shop. Walks in. First bike he sees is a Hayabusa. "Wow. That thing is cool." He sits on it, sees that the speedometer goes to 220mph. "I have to have this thing", he thinks.

Salesman walks over, they get to chatting. The salesman tells him all about how much hp it has, how it's the baddest thing on two wheels. Bob thinks to himself how cool he'll be when he shows off to his new friends.

Eventually, Bob can't take it anymore. The $12k is burning a hole in his pocket. He pulls out his wallet, hands over the crisp $12,000 bill to the salesman. They write up the paperwork, the salesman goes over the basic controls of the bike, and off Bob goes.

Bob pulls out on to Golf Rd. The curiosity is killing him. He HAS to know what 160hp feels like. So he whacks the throttle open, and the bike takes off. The bike buries it's 220mph speedo before running into the back of a parked semi truck that was unloading crates for Bob Evans restaurant. Bob dies instantly.

Who is at fault?  (morally, not legally)

That's a tough one to call.

I say Mom and Dad, for not teaching the kid anything to begin with.  Like respect.

Mike

All three are at fault....

Bob:  He is responsible for his actions (idiot)

The Shop:  Come-on now, you know he is going to kill himself.

Parents:  They should have exposed him to the hazard of speed (just like kids and guns).  If they did, then there was nothing they could do.

Dawn  

Better question......who cares?

The person at fault is the person with the throttle in their hand.

QuoteThe person at fault is the person with the throttle in their hand.

That is exactly MY opinion.  I won't go into justifying it just yet.

I'm surprised with some of the responses so far (from a poll here as well as the other board...)

     Tuesday of this week, here in Rockford Illinois, a 22 year old male killed himself while drag racing his Cobra Mustang against a Camaro on State street (the main strip in this town - 45 mph). This was at 4pm in the afternoon, during the start of rush hour, and was possible due to the stoplights being timed to each other and having open street in front of them. They were going something like 130 mph when someone pulled out from a side road and the guy in the Mustang swerved to avoid hitting that car and ended up losing control and rolled his car for 100's of feet.
     In my opinion this was bad decision making ability and is so common now days. We have definately reached a point in history where people try and put the blame on things other than their own actions. At 18 years old you've gone thru 12 years of school, can vote for elected officials, and are starting life on your own outside of school or going on to college. Yes these individuals basic training in decision making ability may have been flawed along the way by their parents or others, but ultimately at this stage in life you are considered an adult and are responsible for your own actions.
     In both of the examples given, their personal decision to do what they did, where they did it, is what caused those unfortunate results. If they had wanted to do what they did they could have chosen to do it somewhere there was not other vehicles to worry about, a place that had space to stop within there field of view. I am not saying that doing this on the street is right, but at least use a little common sense!

The dealer is in no way at fault. You use a busa in this question it does not matter if it was an ex 250 if he cracked the wick on that for too long he would ball up. I doubt there is a dealer out there who has not sold a bike squid. I'm sure the family would head right to the lawyer. The guy who bought the " OWCH I just spilled hot coffe on my little toe I need to go and call my lawyer to get paid from the coffe shop, cup manufacturer and Juan Valdez. ;D

QuoteThe person at fault is the person with the throttle in their hand.

Yea, EXACTLY... BOB has a brain. Bob can think for himself. So... If I go out and buy a ferrari, and get a speeding ticket b/c I was told it could do over 130 mph, could I blame the dealership and make them pay for it?

This is almost, but note quite as stupid as the absurd try at sueing McDonald's b/c their food caused people to get fat.

Right on Diesel.. that was another RIDICULOUS lawsuit

True story. Roger and I were at a local bike resale shop. I think it was when Rhiannon bought her FZR400. Anyhow, we're standing outside talking to the sales guy when a kid (read: squid) is picking up a GSXR 750.

The sales man who sold him the bike asked him if he knew how to ride, saw he had no gear, and offered to drive the bike to his house. The squid  said he was fine, proudly mounted his new purchase, turned the key, put it in gear, and "opened" the throttle. He did a nice, tight squidly 360 just before letting go of the bike, where it sputtered and died with at least $2000 worth of damage. Luckily, no one was hurt and nothing else was damaged. Who's fault? Squid's fault. Have respect for yourself, others and the machines you use. However, saying that here is like preaching to the converted.

It's no one's fault.  Bob was successfully removed from the gene pool.

Anyone who thinks the dealership is even slightly at fault is a lawyer's wet-dream.
Why do you think the dealer should have any responsibility for selling a completely legal piece of equipment?  The dealer knows that to legally ride the bike, the guy needs to have a license.  An idiot can get killed on roller-skates just as easily.  
Would you like it if you wanted to buy something and the local dealer of that said, "no, I can't sell you because my gut feeling is such and such.  COME ON!
This mentality is exactly why the families of the victims of the east cost "Sniper" feel that they can sue Bushmaster, the maker of the gun he used.  Yet no one is filing suit against Chevrolet, even though they drove a Chevy Caprice.  People need to realize S#!t happens and people need to be accountable for their own actions.
IT IS SOLEY THE FAULT OF THE IDIOT WHO BUYS THE BIKE AND THINKS HE IS INVINCEABLE.

Ptak, you must love watching me get my fur up! ;)

In 37 years, I have NEVER seen a gun jump off of a table and kill someone...

I have never seen a motorcycle spontaneously jump to life and T-bone a minivan in the middle of an intersection...

I have never seen that red-haired clown strapping customers to benches and force-feeding them Big Macs... (eeew!  What a visual!)

Sadly, it is so much easier to blame others for our problems than it is to do actually TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OURSELVES.  Blame the school system and popular media because your child is an illiterate delinquent.  Blame the tobacco companies and the liquor distillers because your lungs and liver are rotten with disease.  Blame Krispy Kreme for your clogged arteries and insulin dependency.  

These same people are so quick to chime in about their RIGHTS... but conveniently ignore the accompanying RESPONSIBILITIES .

Sorry for the rant.