Share 0 Shares

There’s been a lot of speculation and rumors surrounding the events leading up to the horrific crash in Pembroke that left a 13 year old girl dead and two other people clinging to life, after this useless sack of flesh decided to drown himself in whiskey, beer and cocaine and get behind the wheel of his company vehicle, completely inebriated at 7am.

Loading...

Although I do understand the public outrage aimed at the company this man worked for, as it was their company Christmas party he was leaving, as of now I cannot substantiate any of the rumors going around. Social host liability laws very well may end up applying here, but in the interim, this is a company which employs approximately 200 other people who did not decide to get more wasted than a college intern at spring break without the common sense to call an Uber or at least sleep it off in the driveway. Approximately 200 people who depend on the paychecks, even if they are signed by a company would couldn’t be bothered to look into the background of a guy who was hired to contribute to highway public safety. So, let’s not get distracted from where the blame squarely lies here. Gregory Goodsell, his pubestache, and his wanton disregard for public are solely responsible for this tragic loss of life. Although Goodsell’s father told reporters:

“He’s a good kid, he just screwed up, he knows it. This was a company Christmas party that obviously got out of hand. I assure you my son feels terrible.”

Gregory Goodsell is not a kid. He’s 31 years old. And I, for one, am not buying the narrative that the brunt of the blame should get passed off to the company that dad’s trying to sell. This is not Greg’s first time wrecking a car because he doesn’t know when enough is enough or how to call for a ride. His driving record includes three prior suspensions. And he’s thoroughly documented his own shitty judgement through social media.

So much for “definitely a life changer”. In 2008 he hit a tree being “young and immature”, but vowed he was done with that. But that was determined to be a lie, because in 2009….

A picture of another smashed-up car. Because apparently this kid is too fucking dumb to figure out the proper way to operate a two-ton speeding bullet safely on public roadways, in 2010 he got back online to celebrate a lighter license suspension than he was anticipating.

He shouldn’t have gotten that license back at all. Because as recently as 2018, he was charged with even more reckless driving offenses after being involved in yet another accident that sounds pretty consistent with driving under the influence to me.

In fact, it would seem that his reputation for terrible decision making has preceded him for quite some time now.

This guy shouldn’t have been allowed to drive at all – his license should have been revoked a long time ago. He shouldn’t have been hired by a company called “Hi-Way Safety Systems”, because his entire driving record appears to be the complete polar opposite. But most importantly, at 31 years old with all these experiences already sitting clearly in his rear view, he should have known better. The Registry of Motor vehicles should have taken away his license, but that doesn’t guarantee an unsafe driver will no longer drive, nor did allowing him to keep a license force him to drive in the condition he did. Hi-Way Safety Systems should have checked his driving record and social media and immediately declined him a job, but he clearly had a pattern of driving drunk before his employment with the company. Someone should have taken his keys, called him a ride, or driven him home themselves – but nobody held him at gunpoint and made him get behind the wheel of that car. It’s so natural and expected for us as a society to lash out and try to pin the blame everywhere and anywhere we can – Lord knows so many parts of this story were entirely preventable. But that doesn’t change the outcome, unfortunately. Shifting the blame around doesn’t change the fact that one person and one person only got behind the wheel of that Ford truck, blew a red light at 70mph and shattered the lives of an entire community. At the end of the day, that’s where the accountability ultimately lies. And most critically, because he didn’t, a child is now dead, another one clings to life, and if her mother survives this ordeal, her life will be irreparably broken. No, he’s not a “good kid”, I don’t care how terribly he feels, and at the end of the line it was his decisions, and his only, that caused all of this damage and tragedy.

Related