Another tragic story

[dcbogey]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080811.wSUV0811/BNStory/National/home

Two dead as B.C. driver plows into SUV
Article Comments
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
Globe and Mail Update
August 11, 2008 at 9:13 PM EDT
Fleeing police, his own demons and a return to police custody he didn't think he could bear, Gerald Guliker steered his van head-on into an SUV Sunday afternoon.

He killed himself and the other driver and injured four other people – all strangers to him – in what police are calling a murder-suicide.

“In his eyes he was either going to die or go to jail. He chose to die,” his cousin Anton Guliker said Monday.



If you were the cousin, wouldn't you have done more to stop him??

 

[Moraff]

Man couldn't he just have run into a bridge abutment or somesuch instead of taking other people with him?

 

[S.C. Joe]

I don't know...its easy to lose control of a van at high speeds. The police would like to believe the driver drove in to the SUV on poss. so they do not get blamed for not calling off the chase.

I like to know how the police could tell it wasn't an accident...is there a video of the crash?

 

[S.C. Joe]

“We do believe, because of his mental frame of mind, that, yes, he MAY have crossed the centre line intentionally to take his own life, and, unfortunately, did take the life of another man with him,” Const. Dunlop said.



“He said he would rather die than go back to jail,” Anton said. “And I knew he was serious, too. He's been in jail before and I've seen him in jail, and I knew he wasn't coming back



Hmmm, well if he did do that to kill himself, hes a SOB

 

[Moraff]

I don't know...its easy to lose control of a van at high speeds. The police would like to believe the driver drove in to the SUV on poss. so they do not get blamed for not calling off the chase.

I like to know how the police could tell it wasn't an accident...is there a video of the crash?

According to the article, it wasn't a high-speed chase.

RCMP Constable Lea-Anne Dunlop said police followed the vehicle, but didn't use lights or sirens. They lost sight of the vehicle shortly after. Less than two kilometres down the road, the east-bound Gerald Guliker crossed over the median and hit an Envoy SUV travelling in the opposite direction.

and the cops didn't say he definitely did it deliberately, just that they believed it due to the other facts available.

“We do believe, because of his mental frame of mind, that, yes, he may have crossed the centre line intentionally to take his own life, and, unfortunately, did take the life of another man with him,” Const. Dunlop said.

“He said he would rather die than go back to jail,” Anton [2nd cousin to the driver] said.

Gerald had talked about committing suicide by crashing into another vehicle before, Anton said.

“He has talked about going that way, head on,” he said.

So it doesn't seem unreasonable that it was a suicide. I imagine there were also information gleaned by the accident reconstruction that led them to make the comment. (ie no swerve/skid marks sort of thing)

 

[dcbogey]

I don't know...its easy to lose control of a van at high speeds. The police would like to believe the driver drove in to the SUV on poss. so they do not get blamed for not calling off the chase.

I like to know how the police could tell it wasn't an accident...is there a video of the crash?

The police said this: “We do believe, because of his mental frame of mind, that, yes, he may have crossed the centre line intentionally to take his own life, and, unfortunately, did take the life of another man with him,” Const. Dunlop said.

It shouldn't be too hard to look at the scene (skid marks, wet road, gravel marks, etc) to determine if he lost control or drove into them on purpose.

Regardless, given what the cousin said, he should have done something to stop him before they parted.

 

[S.C. Joe]

How did the police lose sight of the van?....cause the van was going very fast likely....he got spook and sped off.....the best way to lose the police is to drive very fast even after they are out of sight...maybe hes been chased by the police in the past.


It seems like nobody will ever know for sure how the accident happen....it was his fault thou.....thats why trying to out run the police is a big No-No...its too risky.

 

[Moraff]

Regardless, given what the cousin said, he should have done something to stop him before they parted.

Well, he did call the cops immediately to tell them of his intentions and where he was headed. Without knowing the people and situation, it's possible that Anton couldn't have physically stopped Gerald without putting himself in danger. Hindsight is 20/20, how many of us have heard someone make a threat and not done anything figuring that they didn't mean it?

 

[Moraff]

How did the police lose sight of the van?....cause the van was going very fast likely....he got spook and sped off.....the best way to lose the police is to drive very fast even after they are out of sight...maybe hes been chased by the police in the past.


It seems like nobody will ever know for sure how the accident happen....it was his fault thou.....thats why trying to out run the police is a big No-No...its too risky.

very true. There will never be 100% of what happened, but given the degree of accuracy they get these days from accident reconstruction and given the apparent state of mind of the driver, it would probably be a pretty safe bet that they can say what happened. IMO

 

[dcbogey]

Well, he did call the cops immediately to tell them of his intentions and where he was headed. Without knowing the people and situation, it's possible that Anton couldn't have physically stopped Gerald without putting himself in danger. Hindsight is 20/20, how many of us have heard someone make a threat and not done anything figuring that they didn't mean it?

True enough but, IMHO, given what we know about what the cousin has said, he had a moral obligation to try to do more.

 

[S.C. Joe]

It really doesn't matter, hes dead but I'm just thinking he might have been looking in his rearview mirror to see if he could still see the police car and the van could have difted over the center line....there would be no skid marks then..


Out running the police isn't easy....you can get very scared and not think straight....don't ask how I know, i lived a long life so far but am a nice level headed guy now, lol.



I will say if the police did have its sirens on full blast, they can be heared for miles away and might have warned the driver of the SUV something bad was happening down the road...but yes, hindsight is easy afterwards.