There’s still some unknown about the Rashee Rice crash. But the known is inexcusable

Royce West, the attorney and Texas state senator representing Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice, stepped in front of a collection of microphones at 1:34 p.m. Thursday.

By 1:36 p.m., he’d cleared up, and stunningly so, I might add, the most pressing question about a multi-vehicle crash that resulted from an apparent race down a Dallas expressway.

Was Rice, his client, driving one of the high-speed vehicles that ignited the crash and injured at least four people?

“During the interview (with police),” West said, “Mr. Rice acknowledged that he was driving the Lamborghini.”

For five days, the uncertainty of that answer, even if slight, has been about the only thing preventing some of us 500 miles away from weighing in more heavily on a terrifying scene.

West removed that uncertainty and thanked the reporter for allowing him the opportunity to do so. It is a bit stunning to hear a criminal defense lawyer remove the only public doubt about his client’s involvement.

That’s not just my thought but one offered by other criminal defense lawyers that The Star’s Jesse Newell and I contacted in the aftermath of a news conference that provided real news.

On the other hand, another attorney said, it perhaps offers a peek into the case and what other evidence might have preceded the admission.

We’ll see.

That’s still the unknown.

The known? Rice drove a Lamborghini Urus so recklessly Saturday evening, conveying a complete indifference for anyone other than himself, that we’re fortunate much of the resulting conversation has somehow been about what this means for his football future.

The difference between death and survival — for those inside his vehicle or any of the five others involved — was not a result of the action.

It is a result of luck.

A dashcam video appears to show the Urus, the vehicle West said was driven by Rice, and a Corvette attempting to pass cars in the left lane of the North Central Expressway. The Urus is out in front, the Corvette tailing behind. The Urus moves onto the left shoulder to try to pass a small car and instead hits the center median, causing a chain reaction of collisions involving multiple cars across multiple lanes of the road. Police officials told the Dallas Morning News the Corvette is also registered or leased to Rice.

It is an avoidable and inexcusable action — and, to be fair, West did not attempt to excuse it, nor did he imply that Rice has offered one.

West, who said he expects charges to be filed against Rice soon, emphasized on Thursday that Rice has “fully cooperated with the Dallas Police Department.”

Except that Rice missed the first step and lowest bar of cooperation: Stay at the scene.

Rice and the driver of the Corvette, who has not been identified, walked away in the aftermath of the crash, police officials have said. His departure leaves us free to wonder why he deemed that to be in his best interest. West was in a surprisingly and perhaps refreshingly sharing mood Thursday, but he declined to share that rationale.

The most haunting image, even without actually witnessing it, is one 27-year-old Kayla Quinn provided the Dallas Morning News: her 4-year-old son shaking and crying after their car was side-swiped.

Those are the lives Rice risked for the reward of speeding down the expressway. Those are the people from whom he walked away.

Rice is a 23-year-old adult, and I’ve heard it noted that many of us did not make the best life decisions in our early 20s. That’s surely true. But Rice’s actions carelessly endangered the livelihoods of people whose only mistake was driving down a Dallas highway at the wrong time of day.

Can we at least acknowledge there are different levels of bad decisions? To chalk this up as something any of us might have done is to trivialize just how serious the consequences could have been.

“By the grace of God, somebody could’ve been injured. I mean, seriously injured,” West said, though anyone who has watched the apparent footage didn’t need to be told that. “(Rice) understands that. He appreciates it.”

Rice, West added, will do “everything in his power to bring their (lives) back to as normal as possible — in terms of injuries, in terms of property damages. He’ll make sure that he is responsible for helping them get through that particular part of this. Don’t get me wrong — we understand that no one can ever ... help them get over the memories of being in an accident.”

It’s another admission, if less directly, that Rice is at fault. To be candid, this is a refreshing departure, even if we have to set aside the strategy of it to make room for that thought. It is taking at least some level of responsibility — the responsibility Rice left behind last Saturday.

This will be a costly mistake for the men behind the wheels of the two vehicles, and for a budding star wide receiver in particular.

Legally.

Financially.

Professionally.

West begged the media in attendance in Dallas — a streaming video was made available for wider consumption back here in Kansas City — not to judge Rice based on a mistake that became national news. That will be up to each of you.

And up to Rice’s future response, too.