Teen Speed Demon Who Killed Friend In 105 MPH Crash Could Get No Jail Time

Late in 2023, a 17-year-old driver killed his 18-year-old passenger in a 105 mph collision with a utility pole and a tree. The impact split the BMW X3 M in half, allowing the driver walk away but leaving the passenger dead at the scene. But now the driver — a habitual speeder, reckless driver, street racer, and occasional assaulter — may get out without jail time, thanks to Michigan’s blended sentencing structure. 

Kiernan Tague, the driver of his mom’s X3 M, often drove with reckless abandon according to both a family phone-tracking app and Tague’s own photo reel. The app, Life360, often recorded Tague at speeds well in excess of 100 mph — even hitting 155 on public roads at one point. These speeds were verified by Tague’s own photos of his speedometer, recording his personal land-speed records. Tague’s mother had access to the speed data, according to the Detroit Free Press, but did little to rein her son in. That lack of control may have come from Tague’s apparent violent habits, from destroying property in the family home to physically assaulting his mother. 

Tague appears as a reckless and violent force, one that the parents of his 18-year-old victim want locked up according to the Detroit Free Press. They take issue with the possibility of what Michigan calls a “blended sentence,” in which juvenile offenders on the cusp of adulthood can be sentences to rehabilitative therapy instead of prison — with prison remaining an option should the therapy prove fruitless. It’s understandable that parents, violently stripped of their child, would want the person who shattered their family behind bars. 

But the data on incarceration isn’t so simple. Punitive measures like strict prison sentencing may feel better to many, particularly in terms of providing relief to victims and their families, but the data shows it may actually be less effective in preventing repeat offenses than a more rehabilitation-focused approach to crime prevention. Therapy may feel like a perpetrator is getting off easy, but it’s proven to do a better job at keeping offenders from repeating their crimes. If the “easy” sentence could save another kid from the same fate, is it worth passing over the option in order to satisfy a victim’s family? It’s a question to big for a lowly car blogger to answer, but a question worth asking.