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Los Osos man charged with manslaughter

November 8, 2014

Tanner MengoreA Los Osos man who was the driver in a deadly crash that took the lives of two children was charged with manslaughter on Friday.

On Oct. 25, Tanner Mengore, 22, was driving an SUV at a high rate of speed when he lost control of the vehicle on Highway 1 near Cayucos, hit an embankment and went airborne before rolling several times. Two children died in the accident and two adults were hospitalized with major injuries.

The driver, Tanner Mengore, 22, allegedly smoked spice, a synthetic marijuana, before the accident.

On Friday, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office charged Mengore with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of a drug causing injury and child abuse.

Aside from the toddler, the four people in the vehicle had driven to a new smoke shop in Cambria to purchase spice.

Spice, sometimes sold as incense, is popular among teens. It is cheap, looks like marijuana, but can be deadly.


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Another advocate for legalizing marijuana!


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I don’t get this statement. If you are comparing spice to marijuana-better do some research. If you are advocating for marijuana, I am with you.


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I feel a great deal of sadness for the loss of the children. This never should have happened.

Until such time as we take impaired driving more seriously, the next victim could be YOU.


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“Spice, sometimes sold as incense”


I wander if the courts can conclude this incense as a drug for the purposes of DUI?

If not can he be charged with gross negligence while under the influence of something that is legally sold?


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Yes, you can be charged with a number of crimes (starting with DUI) for under the influence of something that is legally sold if that something limits your ability to function normally. Alcohol is the obvious example, but an illegal act under the effect of prescription drugs can happen too. For the “huffers,” there are numerous substances sold legally that can result in an illegal action and be prosecuted as such. (Certain glues, butane, propane and likely others for example.)


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As a teenager of the 70’s who survived assorted bad decisions, I reflect when I read about tragedies like this. The family is forever torn. The survivors have to live with their actions, the oldest being 22. Mixed with anger and sadness, at the very least, maybe some young person will stop and think about what happened here. I am grateful that poor decisions in my youth never caused harm to anyone, but they could have. Compassion is sometimes harder to feel than anger, when there all that is there is grief.


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And they recently reduced some drug possessions to misdemeanor. We will probably see more of these reckless, under the influence, drivers on the road.


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Well then by your reasoning, we should go back to prohibition on alcohol to right? It also impairs driving and is readily available so……………………


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Kind of surprised how many people don’t have a problem with drinking and driving.


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same reason folk in N or S Carolina have no problem with kids smoking tobacco this here is wine country!


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sorry but put him in jail and leave him there


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Its sad how nothing is being done to prevent these felony reckless drivers from endangering human life and from maiming and killing the innocent.


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What more can reasonably be expected. Until someone is first caught driving with this kind of recklessness, it is pretty hard to predict that it will happen — and I am glad that is so because a law allowing police to “predict” who will become a dangerous driver would be way too open for abuse.


Better education about the effects of drugs (honest information, not exaggerated scare tactics) might help in preventing some youth from either trying them or driving under the influence if they use them. But there are still a lot of people who won’t learn that way. Those same people usually don’t avoid actions out of fear of legal penalties either but stiffer penalties might keep them off the road longer afterwards — at a cost to the taxpayer in the form of jails/prisons.


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