I have been a police officer for more than ten years and a volunteer firefighter for more than 15. In that time I've seen hundreds of car crashes. The majority of them are minor fender benders. Unfortunately however, some, indeed too many, are serious or even fatal crashes. I can distinctly remember the first fatal car crash that I was at. As a seventeen year old volunteer firefighter, I was on a crew that was called out to a single vehicle crash into a tree on a local road. There were five teenagers in the car. They were all my age. They were all from the area. All but two of them died from their injuries. The two who survived were seriously injured. And it was Mother's Day.
This scene would be repeated over and over several times over the next 10 years or so. Sometimes only one fatality. Sometimes involving more than one car. But the common thread, as I see it, in all of these fatal crashes involving teenagers is SPEED.
Today's newspaper cites speed as a factor in one of the area's most recent fatal crashes involving teens. It's all too familiar, yet just as disturbing. Teenagers think they know everything, and they think they are invincible. It in their nature, I guess. But as parents, let's do what we can to get our kids to slow down and save a life.
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