Friday, January 12, 2007

TEENAGE DEATHS ARE PREVENTABLE!

Hullo, Possums, it's your favourite Aunt here. Look, I just wanted to tell you about something rather sad that happened in our town recently. It is meant as a cautionary tale, one that might help to lessen the road toll.

On the morning prior to a soccer final, some young boys were driving an unregistered farm vehicle on a country back road. What happened is unclear but you know what young boys are like: they think they are both indestructible and a reincarnation of some famous racing driver.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the vehicle rolled over and one boy, the driver, was thrown clear. The other boys, members of the team, were burned alive.

Later in the afternoon, the rest of the team played in the finals which they lost. They played, not for glory, but purely in recognition of their dead team mates. I was at that Final and I have to say I shed the odd tear. The deceased's parents were there and how they managed to get through that afternoon is one of life's mysteries. The strength of people can amaze you sometimes. Later, when the terrible reality of what had happened sank in, I suspect that their strength may have faltered.

Of course, the country town was devastated. Country towns are not like cities. Usually there is a strong sense of community and everyone knows everyone else. When tragedy strikes, it affects everyone and it takes a long time to dissipate.

But the real point of my post is to urge you parents not to let your kids drive farm vehicles unless they are supervised AND not to let them own over-powered cars or drive while drunk. And I welcome the new P-plate restrictions on young drivers. The more restrictions the better!

Young people must be prevented from killing themselves and their friends until they achieve some degree of driving skill and maturity! A tall order I know but worth persevering with unless you enjoy attending funerals.

Cheerio! xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. I still shed a tear when I think about it. What a terrible waste of young lives.

4 comments:

iMuslim said...

Subhanallah, indeed, what a tragic waste!

I have heard of many similar stories of young boys from my own community, hiring flash motors and racing them on all sorts of roads. Many accidents and deaths have resulted.

One of my neighbour's sons has this exact same Formula 1 racing attitude to driving and he has crashed so many times. Once his car FLIPPED OVER, three or four times. He walked away without a scratch, thank God. The most infuriating part of it is HIS PARENTS - they just laugh it off. Err, did i miss the freaking joke?! Even if God has spared his life, what happens if he kills someone in his next accident? How will he live with himself? What's it going to take for him to stop?!!

OK, calming down now.

Anonymous said...

So nice of you to drop by, Dear. It is a difficult problem, I agree.

One answer I suppose would be to raise the driving age but it you raised it to say thirty-five some males still wouldn't be mature!

Perhaps driver education at school plus very strict licence provisions for the first three years might be helpful.

Cheerio! xxxxxxxxx

iMuslim said...

I'm not sure what that will achieve, only because:

1) A lot of these lads drive way before they are legally allowed to.

and

2) They always seem to fool the examiners into passing them first time! Again, the neighbour's son i mentioned. After one of his big accidents, he was forced to re-take his test, only to pass with flying colours. He joked that the test was so frustrating, cos all he wanted to do was put his foot down, but he had to drive "normally".

I refrain from calling this boy the name he deserves... but he, and all the lads like him, really are something else!

Aunty Danielle said...

Being burned alive also makes one something else, Dear. In the case of the boys in my post, they had to use dental records to identify them.

Well we can't let them kill themselves and others, can we? Something must be done!

Cheerio!

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