Legal Sense in a Senseless Tragedy

Young Ashley Melbourne is off the hook. But, just as likely, she is not. Just as likely, her punishment has been firmly attached like a yoke around her neck and that she continues to carry it around. And that she may carry it forever.

Ashley is the 16-year-old who in May was driving an SUV that flipped on the San Joaquin Hills toll road while she and five other teens were on their way to a school dance. Jonathan Schulte, 16, and Gillian Sabet, 17, were killed. Ashley and the other three were injured.

Investigators determined that Ashley had momentarily taken her eye off the road while reaching for a pack of gum. The SUV drifted left and her front-seat passenger grabbed the wheel but overcorrected.

This week, the California Highway Patrol announced that the Orange County district attorney’s office wouldn’t file charges against Ashley. The D.A.’s spokeswoman said she couldn’t discuss the particulars because they involved a juvenile. However, she noted that the goal in juvenile cases is rehabilitation. Her unspoken next thought, no doubt, would have been that the details of this incident don’t lend themselves to rehabilitation.

It’s good when common sense and the law arrive at the same conclusion. In this case, the conclusion demanded that the situation be chalked up as a tragic accident. Something terrible that happened.

It sounds like such mundane language for something with such a catastrophic outcome. It’s human nature to rebel at the notion that two young lives can end so abruptly without exacting a large measure of revenge or justice.

Two lives lost, over a pack of gum?

Say it ain’t so.

No useful purpose would be served by punishing Ashley. Taking away her license would make a certain amount of sense, but even that sounds trivial when stacked against the consequences of what happened.

I’d offer the added thought that this is the kind of case that makes you want to scream bloody murder at the gods for allowing such a thing. But we can’t punish them, either.

The difficulty in thrashing this about, however, is that we can trace the accountability. In taking the keys and driving at 70 mph on a toll road with five people on board, Ashley was responsible for their safety. The investigation concluded that, if only for a moment, she lapsed in that responsibility.

And for those who would argue that actions have consequences and that such a lapse must come with a price, I imagine it will.

It’ll be a sentence that might well be measured in years. It’ll involve a prison from which it may be impossible to escape.

Whatever form Ashley’s personal penance may take, she still may find herself imprisoned by her sense of guilt.

Unless she’s one of those people who can bury such feelings under a mountain of denial, she may be captive for a long time. She may feel it, if only for a while, every time she gets behind the wheel. She may flash back to the fateful moment even when she thinks it’s the furthest thing from her mind.

It’s not a sentence I’d wish on a 16-year-old. Whatever she deserves, it isn’t a lifetime of pain.

In a world overpopulated with creeps and cons, Ashley sounds like one of the good people. A CHP spokesman, in discussing the D.A.’s decision, told reporters that Ashley “is a good student and an outstanding citizen.” He went on to say that there was nothing the court system needed to do to rehabilitate her.

Just something that happened. I don’t know if Ashley will ever use those words to describe the accident. I hope not, because it was a much more profound moment than that.

But while shaking our fist at the heavens over the deaths of two teens -- who were eulogized as unusually accomplished and celebrated people -- perhaps we could add a silent plea that Ashley looks for and finds the peace she’ll need.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.