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Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras, who was 18 at the time of her fatal crash.
A Southern California family that couldn't even visit the mangled body of a daughter killed in a car wreck has received $2.37 million in a lawsuit settlement over gruesome online photos of what became known as the "Porsche Girl," the Los Angeles Times has reported.
The suit was filed against the California Highway Patrol, whose investigators took the pictures, the Times reported. Two Highway Patrol dispatchers leaked the photos, the newspaper said.
The incident stemmed from a Halloween 2006 crash involving Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras, 18, who officials said took her father's Porsche, drove it over 100 mph on an Orange County toll road, clipped another car and swerved into a toll booth, the Times said.
The family was not allowed to view the disfigured body.
Comments accompanying the online reproductions of the crash scene mocked the girl, and her family received taunting messages, the Times said.
In announcing the settlement, the CHP said, "No amount of money can compensate for the pain the Catsouras family has suffered" but the settlement could bring "some closure," the Times reported.
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awful shame on them....
I never heard about this before. Thankfully I didn't come across the photos on the internet.
I hope the people lost their jobs.
I also wish that Drivers Ed actually taught drivers how to handle a car. I don't know what kind of training this girl received but I doubt it really prepared her for controlling a car at a high rate of speed. Yes she shouldn't have been speeding and her young age probably means she didn't have much experience behind the wheel. But a system that only teaches the laws and how to watch out for the other drivers is not driver training. Can you imagine if airline pilots were taught that way. Here's the plane, here is everything you are supposed to do, watch out for other planes. What? You mean you need to know how to actually fly?
Hopefully at least one young driver will learn from this so that this girl's death will help save a life.
@economy killer, I've heard of some DUI classes in various states that have shown this exact photo to people who have to attend them. I've seen the photo, and it is so sad and disturbing. She was actually drunk when it happened, she left a halloween party.
In a different article it said one person lost their job and the other was disciplined. I don't think this is going to teach anyone much. Kids might have learned from it if they knew her but I think most kids can't handle the responsibility of driving a car at 16. I have known some that could and I don't think it's the training at fault here. As a teen your boyfriend breaks up with you and dying suddenly seems like a good idea because that'll show him! Now we also have to worry about kids desperately needing to text someone. It's gotten to the point where when I hear of something like this, whether it was high speed that caused it or drugs or booze that I think the county should charge the parents for clean-up as well as psychiatry to all who have to come across a scene like that.
Economy, the photo's are still out there on the internet unfortunately. Like you I too hope the dispatchers who leaked the photo's lost their jobs and I hope they are NEVER again allowed to work in a position where trust and discretion are required!
The girl was drunk and driving a Porsche at 100mph. She sealed her own fate in the commission of a DUI. The photo should serve as a warning sign to other folks who do the same that they could also end up like the rich girl. She could have killed a person!!!!
Insert teensy violin for girl, family. Family should be PAYING for the tax payer's resources that were used to clean up the rich girls' mess and irresponsibility!!
thats horrible. i remember reading about an EMT or someone like that taking photos of a murder victim and posting them on FB. WTF is wrong with people? if that were someone you knew you'd be livid if that happened. Glad the people got in trouble
2.37 Million?? That rich c*nt's family has enough money anyway. She shouldn't have been high on dope when she was driving; And those pics are still all over the place, I guess it sucks to be you; hope the money makes you feel better about it.
The Highway Patrol employees were wrong for leaking the photo, however it is impossible to feel sorry for a rich girl who had blood alcohol and drove a Porsche at 100mph. The photo should be shown in driver's education and DUI/DWI classes. However, let's get real...there's nothing stopping someone from becoming a twisted body with a disfigured face when they are going to do it. Send a bill to her family for the money and resources it took to clean up her irresponsible mess. The family could share the settlement with the local resources who had to clean up an irresponsible rich girl's mess. People wouldn't be feeling so sorry for her or her family if she had murdered someone in the act. She deserved what she got.
First off "DCLight", let's keep to the actual facts. She had just left lunch with her parents, and ran with the car without permission, there was no alcohol involved (though trace amounts of cocaine were found). Second, you need to get your empathy meter reset. A family lost their child, even if it was by her own irresponsible actions. I would probably side with you more often than not on the dangers of rich, overprivileged children, and the risk she was posing to everyone else on the road. But address the tragedy as it IS and not how you imagine it could've been: this family had to bury their little girl, and then be taunted by heartless jack*sses. No one "deserves" that.
rich bitch deserved it.
Seems alot of misinformation on this board... the girl had a blood alcohol level of 0%. One need not be a mathematician to know she was not drunk at the time based on the coroners' findings (although traces of cocaine were found in her system). AND she was not leaving a halloween party... she was having lunch with her parents at their home... after which she proceeded to steal her father's car and speed down the highway, for reasons no one will ever know. But all of this is completely irrelevant anyway... because the problem here is not this girl... the real problem is the twisted f***ks who want to view her mangled corpse and taunt her family and deprive her of dignity even in death... because they are gutless turds.