Accident

A couple weeks ago, there was a horrific accident involving 4 teenagers. Driving a BMW down a straight street, the driver lost control of the car and it started to spin. As it spun, it wrapped itself around a light post - in front of their high school - and broke in half. The front seat passenger was dead when paramedic arrived. The driver lost one leg at the scene (to get him out of the car) and lost his other leg a few days later. 2 other teens (including the sister of the deceased young man) are still in serious condition with serious injuries.

It is still fresh on everyone's mind and parents throughout town - even those with kids far from their teen years - are seizing the opportunity to talk about driving and the need for extreme care when operating a motor vehicle. All of these kids are great kids - and one of them made a horrific mistake. He is now responsible for altering his life and the lives of his two friends forever and ending someone else's. There are also rumors that the driver has attempted suicide in the hospital - he doesn't want to go on facing what happened. The whole town is in discussion about this. Coincidentally, our local paper just started accepting 'comments' the weekend of the accident and the comments are flying fast and furious. The debate will rage on and we all wonder what will happen. Will the driver be charged? Should he be or is the loss of his best friend's life and his own two legs enough of a 'punishment'?

About two weeks before this accident, B. and J. witnessed a serious accident on their way to music lessons. A motorcycle with a young man and one of H.'s classmates onboard pulled out from behind two turning cars (one of whom was B.). Unfortunately, their was a car turning left at the same time and the motorcycle and car collided. The young man was badly injured - his bone sticking a foot out of his thigh. He lost his leg later that night. His passenger - his 13 year old cousin who is in H's class - had severe lacerations but amazingly, walked away from the accident. She is fine. B. was visibly shaken and let J. drive after that. He also wondered if he was 'at fault' - was he driving too slowly and that's why the motorcyclist pulled out from behind. He wasn't - he was driving safely and was slowing down to turn right - the other driver turning left didn't see the motorcylce until it was too late. The motorcyclist had followed B. out of our neighborhood, tailgating him the entire way, obviously in a hurry and driving a bit recklessly. B. learned a valuable lesson that night - think ahead, don't assume anything and be very careful. Cars can kill people. Cars can alter people's lives FOREVER. That is now very clear to both of my kids.

When I asked B. if he thought the young driver in the fatal accident should be charged he said 'yes. He was reckless and someone died'. I said 'some people think losing his legs is punishment enough'. He said 'we send people injured while they were committing a crime to prison all the time - how is this different?'. I was surprised at his logic. As a parent, I can't imagine being faced with this scenario. Grateful my child is alive; sad for the loss being experienced by the other parents - and realizing that my child is responsible. It was an 'accident' - but it was preventable. The young man was driving more than double the posted speed limit and the speed of the car is what caused the accident. HE IS RESPONSIBLE for that, even though the event was 'an accident'.

Accidents happen - but someone is always responsible. Someone is always at fault. It's an important lesson to teach kids about driving. Accidents happen - but the are preventable. That's an important distinction to give a new driver. B. is already a very careful driver and I think the events the past few weeks will make him even more cautious.

I pray for those kids every night. It's all I can do, really. And I pray for my own.