aitah for considerinf leaving my son in the county jail hospital over the weekend instead of paying $9,500.00 in bail?

[u/ShowerElectrical9342]

My son hit a pregnant woman with his vehicle and broke his nose and has stitches on his lip.

He was arrested and is in the county jail hospital. He wouldn't tell me how badly injured the woman is, except that she might lose the baby.

He's a careless, distracted driver who has totalled 2 cars, which his bio dad immediately replaced with even better cars!

But now his bio dad is gone (heart attack) and I don't want to enable this dangerous driving problem.

I'm overwhelmed.

He has had accidents before, and has always been bailed out.

I'm trying to get a regular lawyer because now he says she might lose the baby and sue him.

He's 19.

But no one wants me to take the time to get a regular lawyer instead of this public defender who insists I must send the bail money NOW or my son will be in jail all weekend.

Honestly, I don't know. Maybe that would be good for him. Like a wakeup call.

He didn't mention alcohol, but why else would he he arrested for a car accident?

Help! I have to move fast!

AITAH for even thinking about letting him spend a weekend in jail?

[u/pigandpom]

Your cousin absolutely is a bad driver. Falling asleep behind the wheel is fuckinf reckless. If you're tired you don't drive.

[u/Dense_Reputation_420 → u/pigandpom]

If you work 14-16hrs a rigger it happens as a former rigger can confirm its rough, he lived an hour away so not completely his fault don't get me wrong we've razzed him but it's not his fault it happens when you work a very strenuous job in the heat all day, you've obviously never done anything like that so that's why your opinion is the way it is before you even found out why, but make assumptions because it makes an ass out of you and me lol. That $30+/hr plus 15-20hrs of ot hits differently it just happens to people like us. He also never got arrested either honestly this post seems more like they found alcohol or drugs and that's why he's locked up or he's in dictatorship Cali either way he doesn't deserve to be in county which you obviously have never been locked up in, otherwise you know you'd get jumped and get food and commissary taken from you by REAL criminals so to eatch their own I guess.

[u/Common_Scar4611 → u/Dense_Reputation_420]

Totally his fault. Pull over and sleep

[u/hellsing_mongrel → u/Common_Scar4611]

This! When I was going to college and working in rural west texas and had an hour drive between all three destinations, I was living my life perpetually on only 4 hours of sleep a night and getting home at like 2am every. single. day. And if I'd fallen asleep at the wheel when I was making those treks and ended up killing someone, you know who's fault that would have been? MINE. I would have had a criminal record because of it and I would have had no one but myself to blame! And I wasn't even the best driver back then, lemme tell you, but I sure as hell did my best to keep from wrecking on those long drives home when I was exhausted, because I DID NOT want to go out that way!

There are rest stops on the road that you can stop at to rest for the night, or you can pull to the side of the road and take a nap next to the highway. Or, if you're making 80k a year as a rigger, you can afford to get a shitty no-tell motel for the night so you have a few hours of sleep before you start the next day.

All of these excuses about why we shouldn't hold bad drivers accountable is just reaching completely absurd levels of idiocy! I'm all for prison reform and rehabilitation instead of incarceration, but sometimes the people have to suffer the consequences of their own actions before they'll learn their damned lesson!