I truly do feel for 29 year old Matt Manion of Foxton Beach.

A lapse of judgement left him paralysed from the waist down. His job as a mechanic most likely over, and his time spent running and jumping with his 5 year old son a distant memory.

Of course, it was not Matt’s fault.

“I shouldn’t have let him drive, but I trusted him because I’d known him so long,” Matt said.

So, Paul Thomas Guidera, also 29, who was driving that night of the accident is solely to blame. He is serving 2 years for his lapse of judgement, and paying $25,000 in fines, and will likely be living with it the rest of his life as well. Especially if all his friends are like Matt Manion.

It’s a tragedy for sure. But the question I ask is who forced Matt into the car that night? He admits he shouldn’t have let Paul drive.

Placing the blame solely on Guidera is an underlying issue with modern society. We see it every day, the dumbing down of individual choice and responsibility.

How is it someone who got into a car voluntarily, knowing his friend had been drinking, can place so much blame on one person.

Just as well there are no law suits available to him, perhaps moving to America would suit his sense of responsibility better.

I wish Matt Manion well in his road to recovery, but do wonder if the wound that will take the longest to heal will be his friendship with Paul Guidera.

The lapse of judgement was mutual, and to believe anything else will simply cause ongoing bitterness.