What would you do? - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

ChicsterMG · 05-26-2006, 09:39 PM

I have a good friend who has an '04 GSX-R 750 that he purchased new. He put maybe around $3,000+ in additional equipment to include power commander, exhaust, sliders, etc., etc. He babied this ride. Rode pretty respectably for having one of the fastest bikes on the street. He took great care of this bike and only 2 people ever rode this bike, one them being me the other was himself.
Well, the other morning he gets a call that his nephew (17 years old) took the bike out without his permission and got in an accident with another rider.
The story goes, they were enter a main roadway from a side street when a bus pulled from the other direction, the other biker tried to react by braking too hard and cutting into the path of the GXR. The other bike then high sided and the GXR struck the bottom of the frame throwing the rider and flipping 2 or 3 times side to side, not end over end. They claim they were not going fast and it was due to the bus disrupting thier line.
Before I go on, I should note that the only injury suffered was a broken colar bone one the other rider. My friend's newphew got away with a sore hip and a bruised ego. They were very lucky it wasn't any worse.
So, my friend finds out that this happend the day before in the morning while he was away for work and they waited to tell him.
My friend wants to make his nephew suffer the consequences and have him pay for the damages. (over $4,000 just to get it on the road, not including the plastics and accessories) His nephew had no license and no permit and the other rider has only a permit (he was on a R-1 that he dropped or fell with3 other times).
His mother and aunt want him to take it easy on the kid because he "feels bad." He is worried that if he follows through and make the kid pay for his mistake he will be outcast from his family.
Is this the world we live in? As long as someone feels bad about thier actoins there should be no ramifications? If it were anyone else the kid would be going to jail for grand theft. I think the kid is lucky that he didn't get hurt worse or killed and that my friend did not put his size 10 into his posterior until he couldn't walk anymore.

So, just curious, what would you do? Personally, I think the kid should be held accountable and made to pay.