<p>4 Students from a high school in a nearby town were killed last night. That school is the scheduled opponent for my D’s school this Friday and it is homecoming game. It’s going to be a horrible week for everyone. Pray for their families.</p>
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<p>Four Students Killed in Wreck</p>
<p>HOUMA, LA – Four Vandebilt Catholic High School students – including the football team’s starting quarterback – were killed Sunday in a wreck on La. 182 between Bayou Blue and Coteau roads.</p>
<p>The pickup they were in was discovered in a bayou around 1:45 p.m., following a multi-parish search by parents and law enforcement personnel when they failed to return home as expected from an LSU football game in Baton Rouge.</p>
<p>The identities of the four, T.J. Cantrelle, Megan Hitt and Gabrielle Hebert, all 17, and Ian Haydel, 15, were confirmed by police this afternoon.</p>
<p>According to friends and authorities one of the students had texted a parent at about 12:45 a.m. with a message that they were near home. When the teens failed to appear by 3 a.m. parents began their own search. Authorities were contacted later and searches were conducted in parishes from East Baton Rouge to Terrebonne.</p>
<p>A GPS signal from the cell phone of one of the teens was used to locate the pickup.</p>
<p>Classmates gathered near the scene and said they were preparing for a prayer service at a private home.</p>
<p>The cause of the wreck is under investigation by Louisiana State Police.</p>
<p>So sorry. Will keep the families and the community --and your family too-- in my thoughts. What a sad, terrible, devastating loss. Hope your D is ok.</p>
<p>I is a nightmare and something I have been dreading since DS is getting a license in less than 6 months. What do you do? Do you keep driving them places even though they are perfectly capable of driving themselves?</p>
<p>^^^^^No, you don’t. But you can limit where they drive and at what time until you and they gain confidence and experience. My daughter is not allowed to drive on highways, only city traffic for the first six months. After that, we will be practicing getting on and off a couple of the less traveled highways during off peak times together. Right now my daughter does just fine getting around on city streets. She is also not allowed to drive late at night, for long distances, or with passengers other than my DH and me right now. She had to sign a contract agreeing to respect the speed limit and other laws, and no cell phone or texting while driving.</p>
<p>Even then, we know we are only controlling a certain number of variables. But we live in an area where driving is a must and she must learn how to master this. We have to let go sometime-but we are doing it in small increments.</p>
<p>As I said in my original post, Vandebilt Catholic was scheduled to play an away game at my kids’ school this Friday for homecoming. We as parents didn’t know what to do or expect… and were wondering all day what would happen. Thinking what we would actually say to the fans/parents from VC…how can you cheer against that team? As kids, how could they play against that team??</p>
<p>The two boys who were killed both played football, one as the article said was the starting QB. One of the girls was a cheerleader. </p>
<p>My daughter is on dance team …many kids at our school know kids at VC. I’m assuming it must be this way in other states…At LA high school football games, cheer, band, & dance team kids from visitors side visit on the home side: band kids visit band kids, dance team, cheerleaders, etc. I was thinking all day, what would our kids say to them? What can you say?</p>
<p>Anyway, we just learned that the game is cancelled. I am relieved…</p>
<p>I am a little sad for our seniors that their usual homecoming routine will change, but it is very minor to compared to what the VC kids are going through. </p>
<p>And as far as driving…I am still concerned when my 19-year-old DS soph in college drives the two hours back and forth on weekends when he comes in. He was never one to want to drive a lot… On the other hand, my 15-year-old DD is trying to talk me into getting her license at 16 so she can drive herself back and forth after late night rehearsals for plays, a 30 minute drive. Uh, no!</p>
<p>Thanks for prayers…Here’s a link to the school’s website with photos of the kids. I cry everytime I look at it because I think one of them could be my own:</p>
<p>My heart is just aching for your community. We lost several students in auto accidents this summer…terrible, needless, sorrow.
The only immediate thought that comes to mind is…Do your players have their own numbers or stickers on their helmets? If not, a nice tribute would be to put the numbers of the players that were lost on either side of each of your players helmets. Perhaps your school choir could sing something dedicated to those students just prior to the national anthem.
I’m sure others with come up with ideas and share as well. Any gestures by your school will be very well received.</p>
<p>“Do you keep driving them places even though they are perfectly capable of driving themselves?”</p>
<p>If the “places” they’re going include a college football game/gigantic beer party two hours away, from which they will be returning after midnight with a million drunks on the road? Hell yes, a grown-up should drive, or my kid wouldn’t go. Particularly if the vehicle is a pickup truck. </p>
<p>High schoolers are NOT perfectly capable of driving a bunch of their friends late at night after exhausting parties over long highway distances in vehicles designed for expert drivers. No way. This was a tragedy waiting to happen.</p>
<p>I don’t want to second guess or criticize the parents of the kids, but I agree. I would not allow my teen driver to make that drive under those circumstances either, even if it had been during the daylight hours.</p>
<p>That is the EXECT reason why in California, underaged kids are prohibited to drive after 11 and they cannot transport other underaged kids without adults in the car.</p>
<p>Louisiana’s law removes any time and other passenger restrictions at age 17.</p>
<p>As heartbreaking as it is, I agree…even my 19 year old wouldn’t have been driving back that late at night. He doesn’t like it and neither do I.</p>
<p>The latest news is that the driver of the truck sent out a text to tell his parents they were close around 1 am. Now maybe he did it at a stop light, or handed the phone to someone else to send.</p>
<p>And in today’s paper, some have said from initial indications are the driver fell asleep at the wheel.</p>
<p>I’m super cautious about my S driving and now that my D has her permit, it will be the same way with her!</p>
<p>Falling asleep is possible. My money would be on texting, from the description of the accident.</p>
<p>There was an accident near me a couple years back that was triggered by texting. Fortunately no loss of life or even serious injury, but that result was extremely fortuitous. The driver overcorrected after nearly running off the road, and would up hitting a tree and flipping the vehicle. </p>
<p>I’m finding, now that I own a smartphone, that doing anything with the phone while driving is quite a bit more dangerous than the older type phone. And I’m not talking about texting here. </p>
<p>Nearly a year ago we had 4 young people killed in an accident involving a driver who had been stopped for speeding several times (in fact I think his license was suspended). They were going 90 mph when they went through an intersection and hit another car. Two of them were ejected into a yard at 90 mph. The driver wasn’t drunk, he just liked to go fast. One of DS former middle school classmates was in the car. </p>
<p>How many of us reached 20 without seeing someone we knew personally killed in a car accident of one sort or another? I can think of at least 3 in my own circles by that age, not to mention the numerous ones since. Does anyone really think we would tolerate having 35,000 people PER YEAR killed by terrorists in this country?</p>
<p>So this California law would not have prevented this incident as 3 out of the 4 (and presumably the driver) were 17 y/o.</p>
<p>I saw a show where they had statistics showing that texting while driving puts the risk of an accident even higher than being drunk and driving (I think double the risk). This has just got to stop.</p>
<p>We don’t know yet if texting was the cause of this accident, but it sure appears to be in the realm of possibility. Texas law prohibits drivers under the age of 18 from using phone/texting and driving, but imo it should extend to all drivers.</p>