"Accidents"
 

My 10th grade english teach told us back in the spring, "I can assure you that before you graduate from college, one of your peers will be killed in a car accedent because of somebody acting like a complete moron. Make sure it isn't you."
Strangely enough, he was right...
Last night a 17 year old girl from my school got killed. I wasn't close friends with her, but still...

She was driving to see her boyfriend in a town nearby when this 16 year old guy hit her head on. And get this: He had a case of beer right next to him in the car and he reportedly "reeked of alcohol"! Drinking and driving are we?

It's hard to believe that one stupid little thing like that could destroy people's lives forever. This girl was going to be a senior in high school, her last year of high school, and she dies. That's just... horrible. And ithe accedent wasn't even her fault.

And today, the family of the guy who hit her called and claimed that he was not drinking and driving, but I dunno. I have a hard time believing that...

(And later the kid admidded to him drinking.)

*sigh* Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. Does anybody else have any thoughts or comments on car crashes like these?

"It's a horrible thing when a person dies. What has taken a lifetime to create is destroyed in a few seconds."

You sure that your 10th grade english teacher didn't talk with mine? Last year, she also talked about the entire "Drunk Driving" thing. She found it very sad. And then this year, my school did this big show where they took two cars, messed them up, then got some kids to act like they had been in an accident.

Sad thing is, most of the kids watching spent most of the time making jokes.

It's a serious thing.

Yikes, I'm sorry.

Something kind of like that happened when I was in eighth grade. It's weird because you don't ever expect people to die so early, and it was weird for my circle of friends because we kind of knew her -- she was in a bunch of classes with us, she flirted with the boy we all had a crush on -- but not really. It seems to me like death is harder to process when your relationship with the person is kind of nebulous. You don't know how sad or unaffected you're allowed to feel. I still think about her once in long whiles, though, how sad it is that she never got to grow up with the rest of us, or do anything besides being a drunk driving statistic and an empty place in her family. The sense of something deeply unfair having happened is still there.

Accidental death is always pretty brutal, but it always feels moreso when the victims are so young. I'm really sorry this happened.

Yah... it's a sad thing. Friends and family robbed of her presence, forced to realize that they'll never see her again. She'll never smile, or laugh, or do any of the more personal things that made the people that knew her happy again. Why? Just because some asshole felt like getting smashed and driving.

This is one of the many reasons I hate drunks with a burning passion that borders on homicidal tendencies.

I can tell you why. When faced with something like that, you have two choices. You can either comment on how ridiculous the 'acting' and skit is, or you can step back and look at the message they're trying to convey is. Truth be told, that message is an extremely depressing one. It's one about people dying. It's one about the tragedy of death. It's one that, if you stopped and thought about it, would tear your heart out.

Now, maybe if you only had to make that choice once. Or even once a year, or once a month or once a week. Maybe everyone there would decide to take it for what it is. Maybe they'd get through to someone with their stupid little skits.

But, let's face it. You're forced to either recognize that much pain multiple times a day, or laugh it off.

For the vast majority of people, actually stopping to think about that everytime they saw a drunk driving commercial, or every time their dare teacher said something, or every time the school had a skit... they probably couldn't take it.

That's why people make jokes about serious things. It's the easiest way to not think about it.

Also because it's popular and cool, as highschool is one big contest. Annoying but I guess that isn't what this is about.

Yeah, my uncle killed himself by having a bit of a run-in with alcohol and trees. The 60 mph didn't help any either. I was 8 at the time, death didn't faze me. It still hasn't gotten to me. But I ache knowing I'm never gonna hang out with him again, cause the times we did hang out he was cool. He was everyone's favorite brother in my mom's generation.

It's stupid how there's so many leniencies on drunk driving. It should be 5 years' revocation of license and some amount of jail time on a first offense. Stricter punishment would mean less offenders, if you ask me. Or at least make them think twice.

*Just in comment to first post*

I am a Junior in high school (going on to be a Senior), and a now graduated Senior got in an accident over a very stupid 'traffic dispute'. I'm not 100% on what happened, but his lights were off and someone tried to honk him to tell him. He got scared and sped of, and then crashed into a telephone poll, killing one of the 4 other kids in the car, severley injuring one, and hurting the other 2 and himself. The car was 5 kids comming back from the county wrestling championships, in which three of the five kids won their matches, and the team WON the championships.

Even worse, the next week 2 of the kids were to go to the STATE championships.

Even worse, the kid who died had told his coach that this was "the best night of his life". Furthermore, the driver HAD a full scholarship to DUKE. Yep, full ride.

And there was no alcohal, no drugs, kid just had his lights off and got scared.

How is that one to be prevented? No ones fault, just a stupid mistake on the driver, and he is a very very responsible kid. Honor society, top 25, very smart. This could have happened to anyone. And I know STUPID IDIOTIC drivers, he wasnt one of them.

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I might sound cold and harsh with this but:


Life, we really dont get it, and never will.

-Dudemullet

Raiden where in the heck do you live cause the did that in a town near where I live! They even reported on it in our local newspaper.

More on the point...
It does happen and its sad. And as long as people are allowed to keep being people stuff like that will continue to happen.

When I was 11, my mother died in a car accident because a truck crossed the red light at full speed and crashed into my father's car. There were five people in the car, and only my father made it out alive. The thing is that the trucker wasn't drunk or high on stimulants. He apparently just thought it was okay to cross the red light because it was so late at night and he "didn't see any car lights coming the other way".

Up until this year (The school axed most of the extra-cirriculars this year) our school's SADD group would always pick a day out of the year, take all their members and dress them up in black clothing and white face paint. This was supost to symbolize them being dead, for the entire day they couldn't speak to anyone, students or teachers. They'd attend the classes as the administration made them, but it was really creepy.

Especially when the most outspoken and funny people took part in it, some of my classes felt totally dead those days.

It was all just made to make you think, 'what would it be like without these people.' And I don't know if it affected anyone else, but it sure did me.