Where do we draw the line?

ONCE you’ve seen the harrowing footage of a speeding car running another vehicle off the Bruce Highway near Townsville, it’s hard to forget it.

Three elderly people were doing the ordinary and driving north about 5.45am on December 22 last year. One vehicle speeds past their car. Then a second attempts the same manoeuvre but swerves to avoid an oncoming truck ramming into the back of the victims’ car, which is forced onto the other side of the road and into a ditch, rolling several times.

Perhaps the most jaw- dropping piece of the footage is when the first car returns to the scene to pick up the offenders before speeding off with zero regard for the victims who, for all they knew, could have been dead.

It was alleged the two racing vehicles were stolen.

Luckily those innocent victims survived but the healing process would be ongoing.

The first of those accused of being involved in this horrific crash appeared in court yesterday.

Due to the age of the person involved we are unable to name him but the comments made in court paint an alarming picture of an out- of- control teenager.

In adjourning the boy’s sentencing yesterday Judge Gregory Lynham said the 17- year- old had previously been given every sentencing option but that nothing seemed to deter him.

With 20 court appearances already notched up, every effort has been made to get this teenager on the straight and narrow.

It’s an interesting insight to the challenges judges have when sentencing these youth offenders when neither community service nor detention seems to have any impact.

It’s hard to fathom how seeing the video and considering how only sheer luck spared that innocent trio from dying in that crash wouldn’t be enough for you to turn your life around.