Parents of crash victim sue store over 'whippets'

By Josh Mitchell,
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer


Jamie Cook
BOCA RATON - The parents of a suburban Boca Raton woman critically injured in a car collision this summer are suing a video store for allegedly selling their daughter and her friend nitrous oxide cartridges that they used to get high moments before the crash.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleges that Gold Coast Video on Route 441 has sold "whippets" to teenagers and adults knowing the products would be used illegally to get high.

Michael and Gina Cook say their 19-year-old daughter, Jamie Cook, bought whippets at the store, just north of Oriole Country Road west of Boca Raton, the night of June 2 and got high with her 17-year-old friend who was driving the car.

Moments later their car collided with another car on Clint Moore Road.

Jamie Cook spent 80 days in a rehabilition center and suffers from permanent brain damage, the parents said. Her friend suffered minor injuries, they said.

Wednesday, a Gold Coast manager who identified himself only as Don said that the whippets were being sold for people who wanted to make home-made whip cream for sexual fantasies. He said the products were recently pulled from shelves in the store's adult video section and at the front desk after complaints that the whippets were being used to get high.

Sheriff's deputies have been investigating the case since the night of the accident and are weighing criminal charges against the video store, a sheriff's spokesman said.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/news/1210whippet.html

All I can say is, anyone doing nangs/whippets whilst driving are fucking idiots. I just hope the innocent people in the other were ok. It's kind of hard to say, not everyone would know people use whippets/nangs to get high. It was the peoples choice to get high WHILST DRIVING, they could at least went to a place where no driving would take place during/shortly after they got high..

I was about to edit my post & put that in! you saved me from doing it

These people are very silly indeed.... common sense should prevail with drugs & driving.

Unfortunately with drugs involved common sense flies straight out the window.

That's not true at all Bent. If people have no common sense IRL, they will naturally be predisposed to stupid acts when under the influence. Intelligent people can use drugs for many years without doing dumb things.

Meanwhile,

"a Gold Coast manager who identified himself only as Don said that the whippets were being sold for people who wanted to make home-made whip cream for sexual fantasies."

-LOL! I'll remember that one.

aunty establishment said:

LOL! I'll remember that one.

Click to expand...

ROFL

What ever happened to personal responsibility?
*sigh*

The whipped cream bath is the oldest (and probably the only semi-plausable) excuse in the book!

However those people deserve everything they got. Even if they store owners sold them the nangs knowing they were going to inhale them, it's not the store owners fault that the fucking retards had them while driving. That's like suing the car dealership because you are in a crash while driving at 150km/h in a 60 zone. Or probably more accuratly, it's like suing McDonalds because you're trying to eat a Big Mac while merging onto a freeway and sideswipe someone.

And all she's got is brain damage. I doubt there was much of a brain to damage in the first place.

Fucking idiots.

Bah... This is called this natural selection. I have 0 sympathy, and if I die in similar cirumstances I expect none either...

This kinda reminds you of why lawyers aren't very well liked in society. They capitalise on anything.

The parents hired the lawyers... and they're just trying to lash out at anyone to help themselves get over the shock that their good little innocent blameless kids could've been involved in anything like this... no?

BigTrancer

It also gives nitrous a bad name to society.

Arseholes!

Natural selection prevails again!

They were fucking idiots, and subsequently, got what they deserved...

Why don't you forward these replies to the Josh Mitchell,
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, to pass on to the parents and see their reaction? would be interesting to see their replies.

I don't think anyone here is trying to undermine the right of the parents to be upset about what has happened, or in any way invalidate their suffering. Why, and the fact that Jamie Cook is now disabled, needs to be separated from what her parents are doing about it - the 'blame' they're fabricating in a situation anyone viewing it objectively would call an 'accident', and their legal follow up based on this ungrounded blame. When applied to this situation, simple unarguable logic leads one to the conclusion that neither the nitrous, nor the vendor of the nitrous are responsible for the accident. The driver is.

I have all due respect for her parents, as their suffering must be beyond words. But their actions in following up the accident are condemnable.

I think it would be a different story if it were your brother or best friend.

Its easy to condemn those we don't know.

Maybe Mr. Horse, but I wouldn't know as I've never been in such a situation. We'll see what the court says.

UPDATE

These parents have no right to blame the video store, if they did then all alcohol outlets would be sued for drunk drivers.

This is so ridiculous i can not believe it.

As was stated before, "what ever happened to personal responsibility for fucks sake!!!!!??????????"

I would be very interested in an update of this case.

apollo said:

I don't think anyone here is trying to undermine the right of the parents to be upset about what has happened, or in any way invalidate their suffering. Why, and the fact that Jamie Cook is now disabled, needs to be separated from what her parents are doing about it - the 'blame' they're fabricating in a situation anyone viewing it objectively would call an 'accident', and their legal follow up based on this ungrounded blame. When applied to this situation, simple unarguable logic leads one to the conclusion that neither the nitrous, nor the vendor of the nitrous are responsible for the accident. The driver is.

I have all due respect for her parents, as their suffering must be beyond words. But their actions in following up the accident are condemnable.

Click to expand...

Apollo: Your post pretty much summed up exactly how I feel. I just think its disgusting to read "I'm glad they're dead, they deserved to die, morons"

So many people on this board sit on their holier-than-thou chair, pointing the finger, without realising the human consequence. Nobody in this situation wins. The parents are (quite rightly) looking for someone to blame, 2 people are badly hurt, and thankfully no one was killed.

If you can HONESTLY say you've never endangered someone's life whilst under the influence of ANYTHING (including alcohol, sleep dep. etc), and that includes driving home from a party after drugs, 5am in the morning when you're a little bleary eyed, then preach til your heart's content. Somehow, I don't think that applies to many people here.

Sure, we have the foresight in knowing that driving whilst having a bulb is FUCKING STUPID. But perhaps these people didn't?

This "they got what they deserved" mentality has to stop. Only through compassion and education are dickheads going to learn what is appropriate, otherwise you sound like parents, and NO ONE wants to listen to their parents. (just ask John Howard!)

^^^unfortunatley, no matter how much education there is, there will always be 'dickheads'. it's human nature.

I also agree with Apollo's comments alongside with Mr. horse's