<p>3 students from my daughter’s university were killed and one critically injured in a car wreck yesterday. Also a family of 5 in the other vehicle were seriously injured. The accident was caused because the driver that died tried to pass an oversized load vehicle in a no pass zone and hit the other vehicle that was coming the other way. My god what a tragedy for so many people - always ask yourselves and tell your kids to ask themselves - is trying to get somewhere a few seconds quicker worth such a tragedy. We have always told out kids - better late than dead.</p>
<p>My daughter saw the aftermath of the wreck and was sure the driver could not have survived but was shocked to learn the full devastation. She drives this road often and it is a dangerous road because people (mainly the college students I am afraid) are so impatient and do such stupid things. She drives the road often. I have been in some close calls myself a couple of times.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m so sorry to hear this. I feel so bad for all the families involved - can’t imagine getting this kind of news. What a rough way for the classmates to being the new school year, too. Hope your D isn’t too affected, except perhaps making her drive more carefully herself.</p>
<p>Both my kids when they got their licenses said, “don’t you trust me?” I replied that I trusted them, but there were a lot of people on the road who might do crazy, unexpected things, and I didn’t yet trust their ability to foresee and react appropriately to such things. S1 had his only accident about 6 months after getting his license. He ran into the back of a parked car in the h.s. parking lot. Fortunately, it was private property so no police report necessary, and most of the damage was to our small car that went underneath the bumper of a pickup truck. I have always thought it fortunate that he had this rather innocuous experience early because it taught him how easily accidents happen.</p>
<p>When I was in college and both my sons whenever they were driving were warned against having more than one other person in the car. As my parents told me, I said that we were paying for the car and the insurance, and those were our rules. It often seems, certainly in h.s. years, that accidents tend to occur when there are a lot of people in the car and things probably get noisy and boisterous.</p>
<p>Four years ago this weekend, a very well-liked, popular, and well-respected graduate of our high school (two years earlier) died on his way home for Labor Day. A semi truck didn’t look before changing lanes on the interstate, and the young man was forced into the median, and into oncoming traffic. It’s been four years, and I think some people miss him as bad today as they did four years ago. I think another driver from the oncoming traffic was also killed. </p>
<p>I agree, I just don’t know how I can ever reinforce enough to my kids that it’s not always them I worry about, as it is the other driver.</p>
<p>How horrible. Ever since my son got his license about six months ago, I worry every time he borrows my car. (The fact that my mother was killed in a car accident we were in while she was driving me home from college when I was 20 years old doesn’t help, believe me.) Two things I’m grateful for: (1) he never drives on a highway, local roads only (no need to be on the highway to go the places he does), and it saves me a good deal of anxiety to know that he’s only going a maximum of 35 miles an hour or so; and (2) he’s starting college in Chicago in two weeks, and there shouldn’t be any reason for him even to be inside a car while he’s there. I’ll opt for the streets of Hyde Park and the Chicago metro system over a car on the highway, anytime.</p>
<p>It’s also so tragic when there are deaths related to the vehicles & there are unfortunately SO many</p>
<p>My S never wanted his license (silly me insisted he get one for ID) & now wants a car in LA! I told him I really don’t like the idea & want him to figure out the total costs & make a proposal. I told him I don’t even drive in LA & prefer he not drive there either, unless it’s really essential.</p>
<p>D still has a permit & isn’t in any hurry to get her license either.</p>