Caution - High School Graduation Party Time
June is such an exciting time here in New Jersey. High School graduation signs are all over the development, and everyone is excited by the promise of what the future holds. It's a time of graduation parties and young kids getting behind the wheel as new drivers. Some (unfortunately) choose to combine their inexperience with liquor and their inexperience behind the wheel to create some scary (and possibly fatal) situations.
I'm guessing that a number of you that read this may know of someone that has lost a teen during this time of the year. Back when I was in high school there was a motor vehicle accident with two classmates out having a good time (not sure if alcohol was involved), but only one survived. In college another student lost their life in a vehicle accident at the end of the spring semester. As I got older and was a parent myself there was a former college classmate that lost his son in a motor vehicle crash here in NJ. So, you may ask, Where am I going with all of this?
Cautionary tale for you parents of graduating high school seniors out there
June, 2021 - Soundly asleep around 2:00am we were awakened (actually, my wife was awakened, I slept through it) by a loud crash right in front of our house on Friday night/Saturday morning. We rushed to the window to see a late model four door sedan that had crashed into our son's parked car that was on the street. Apparently, the two young people in the sedan came around the corner a little too fast, were allegedly "looking down at the radio", and didn't look up until they had belted my son's car into tomorrow. His car was hit so hard from behind that the right front wheel was driven right up onto the curb, blowing out the tire, and causing enough damage that my son's vehicle was totaled. Their vehicle didn't fare too well either. Fortunately, the two young men were okay. They were shocked and apologetic for what had happened (which was better than them being belligerent smartasses). If you're thinking that the party the kids came from might have served a few adult beverages, you may be right. At least that was the assessment the police officer had made.
Getting lucky?
Even though their car (or should I say, their parent's car) was wrecked, my son's car was wrecked, and it took way too long for a responsible adult come to pick up one of the young men (I think the driver was going with the nice police officer) it could have been so much worse. They could have hit multiple cars, and/or they could have sustained serious injury (or worse). It's been a year since this took place, and I don't know what happened to these young men. I hope they learned something from this experience. I wish others would think about what they have to lose versus what they have to gain by mixing their inexperience behind the wheel with their inexperience behind the bottle. Sadly, I know that somewhere there will be others this year that will not be so fortunate. I've seen a few graduation signs in our development this year, and I think I'm going to ask my son to park his car in the driveway for the rest of June...
Have a great week, but if you know of any young people driving to a party please share the image I shared above to remind them of the dangerous "hat trick" that awaits them - inexperienced/distracted drivers combined with adult beverage consumption and staying out way too late can really affect their lives and the lives of others.
Dave
About me - I like to write periodically on LinkedIn drifting between personal items, business topics, and work-related topics. Back in 2018-2019 I hammered out 52 straight articles during a period of unemployment/employment. I like to ride my bicycle (a lot - 8000+ miles last year) and can often be found on roads and trails in Monmouth County, NJ. I've recently joined medmix as a Key Account Manager - Surgery. This is a slightly different role for me, but it gives me the opportunity to work with companies that are managing biologics portfolios and looking to put them in delivery syringes. Write to me if you want to talk shop.