Sentence for Crash

“Youth Given 8 Years in Crash That Killed 4,” June 22: I guess it is no small wonder that this kind of manslaughter keeps on recurring. This young man killed four people and could get 3 1/2 years in prison. If your headline had read, “Youth Kills 4 in Drive-by Shooting,” how many years in prison would he have received?

The victims were killed by this man through his negligent and reckless behavior, but yet we give him a veritable slap on the hand since he did it with a car and not a gun or bomb. What kind of message does this send to other kids who are also irresponsible with their actions? The answer shows that it is socially acceptable to kill someone with a car but socially unacceptable to do it by other means.

MICHAEL L. FRIEDMAN

Torrance