Originally Posted by atbman

Again, in the UK the licensed owner of the car would have found that s/he would have been (probably) arrested on the grounds of allowing an unqualified driver to use his/her car. That would probably have made them extremely reluctant to lend it to this foolish / reckless /incompetent girl again, even if the police had only issued a caution* for doing so - with a stern warning of the probable consequences of doing so again.

Whatever would have hapened, it is possible / likely / probable that this terrible tragedy would have been avoided.

*A caution results in a criminal record in the UK