The civil issues alone do enough to deter EVERYONE from thinking this is something you can do without consequences.

I have spent the last 20 plus years dealing with young adult criminals, sex offenders, addicts, and sociopaths, and all I can say is there is no shortage of people who would see this as no deterrent. To prove my point, those who live off of Government benefits or who have no real assets are for all intents and purposes immune from civil tort action financial penalties. I have seen rich parents buy out their kids service hours as well. I have seen kids who do the absolute least amount of work possible to still get someone to sign off on their service hours and often this is done to just get the kids out of their hair.

There is a deeper layer to this. This kid committed this asinine and potentially fatal act in front of his own family and in their luxury sweet. While there are no absolutes here because we are dealing with humans, parents and grand parents who routinely hold their kids/grand kids accountable tend to raise kids who are cautious about doing stupid and potentially life threatening stuff like this. I know saying this will not make me popular on this board, but I have spent a lot of time dealing with kids and young adults who do not learn from their actions because parents rescue them time after time or because the kid/young adult is simply not ready to learn their lesson and have to hit rock bottom as it were before they are ready to learn.

If this kid gets off with merely a fine and service hours I hope he is grateful and humble enough to realize and accept that he was given a second chance in life to one degree or another and take real ownership of what he has done. I suffered a major concussion when I was 13 and I have had problems ever since some 35 plus years down the road. A TBI can be and often are serious long term and permanent injuries. Perhaps the Judge should order this kid to do his service hours in a hospital unit that treats TBI and the long term effects of TBI so that this kid see the real damage that he could have and likely has done