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Rest in Peace
A while back Barbie got a speeding ticket leaving the high school. The school redirected traffic in the opposite way she needed to go, so she cut through a residential neighborhood across from the school and flew past a police car. Not too wise, but remember I said this was Barbie and her driving exploits are stuff of legend in our house. The issue is she got a ticket for speeding in a residential neighborhood.
This past weekend 4 local high school students were killed. In a residential neighborhood. Where the posted speed limit is 25 mph. The story goes that one of the boys had to get his car home before the 11:00 p.m. curfew and decided to drive the 3 minutes from where he was at, to his home. He and his friends never made it home. There is debate over what really happened. A car was in front of them and some say the car was stopping and or turning and possibly not using a turn signal. The boys went around the car, clipped the tail of the car, lost control, slammed into a tree, the car caught on fire and the boys were ejected from the car and died in the street.
Now I purposely drove 25 mph down our street on the way home from work today. If I would have hit a tree or another car, I would have survived the impact. My car would not have spun out of control at that speed. People are blaming the stopped/turning car for this accident that happened. That car could not have caused this accident but a young, inexperienced, impatient driver did and it cost him and his friend's their lives. Thankfully, one of his passengers did survive by the grace of God.
My heart goes out to these children's family and friends. But as a parent, I have to wonder what went wrong. My children always put on their seatbelts when they are passengers in our cars. There are no exceptions. The 3 spawn that drive: always wear their seatbelts. No exceptions. Would those boys have survived if they were wearing their seatbelts? Who knows. But it makes me think back to Barbie and her driving too fast through residential areas, and all of her accidents, and Simba just rear-ended someone a few weeks back. There but by the grace of God go I and them.
This past weekend 4 local high school students were killed. In a residential neighborhood. Where the posted speed limit is 25 mph. The story goes that one of the boys had to get his car home before the 11:00 p.m. curfew and decided to drive the 3 minutes from where he was at, to his home. He and his friends never made it home. There is debate over what really happened. A car was in front of them and some say the car was stopping and or turning and possibly not using a turn signal. The boys went around the car, clipped the tail of the car, lost control, slammed into a tree, the car caught on fire and the boys were ejected from the car and died in the street.
Now I purposely drove 25 mph down our street on the way home from work today. If I would have hit a tree or another car, I would have survived the impact. My car would not have spun out of control at that speed. People are blaming the stopped/turning car for this accident that happened. That car could not have caused this accident but a young, inexperienced, impatient driver did and it cost him and his friend's their lives. Thankfully, one of his passengers did survive by the grace of God.
My heart goes out to these children's family and friends. But as a parent, I have to wonder what went wrong. My children always put on their seatbelts when they are passengers in our cars. There are no exceptions. The 3 spawn that drive: always wear their seatbelts. No exceptions. Would those boys have survived if they were wearing their seatbelts? Who knows. But it makes me think back to Barbie and her driving too fast through residential areas, and all of her accidents, and Simba just rear-ended someone a few weeks back. There but by the grace of God go I and them.
I read one of the articles on-line where they quoted a student from the school saying that the accident is such a 'mood killer'. Duh Einstein. Duh. I just pray the families find some peace and comfort. And more importantly, I hope this is a lesson to all of those students (mine included) that no one is bulletproof and that bad things happen to good people.
The St Petersburg Times has a slide show here - go take a look and hug your kids today.
~ame
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