3 Students Killed Skipping School

[Eeyores Butterfly]

What a terrible tragedy. Three students were killed and six other injured when they decided to skip school and head to the beach. They were riding in an SUV (which was not designed to carry nine people) when the rear tire blew causing the 15 year old driver to lose control and roll the SUV. They believe only the driver was wearing his seatbelt.

Such a tragic thing to happen on the last day of school. Now the survivors will be paying for their stupidity for the rest of their lives. The driver is facing charges, including having more people in his car than it was designed to carry, and the fact that he was not even a licensed driver. What a sobering reminder to talk to your kids about driving and getting into cars with young drivers/wearing your seatbelt, etc. The students at the school must be devastated.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

Sad story.

I cringe whenever I see large amounts of people in cars. Its very rare that the car has adequete insurance to ever cover the injuries for that many passengers. Bodily injury to others.

Even worse when everyone is a family member. There was a large family in our area that rolled their van on the way home from church. 2 of the kids became paralized. Others had injuries. Its been years and they still need yearly fundraisers to try to meet the medical needs for the 2 paralized kids, changes to the house.......

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Sad story.

I cringe whenever I see large amounts of people in cars. Its very rare that the car has adequete insurance to ever cover the injuries for that many passengers. Bodily injury to others.

Even worse when everyone is a family member. There was a large family in our area that rolled their van on the way home from church. 2 of the kids became paralized. Others had injuries. Its been years and they still need yearly fundraisers to try to meet the medical needs for the 2 paralized kids, changes to the house.......

I don't see the problem with filling your car to capacity as long as the car is designed to hold that number, everybody is properly belted in (and little kids are in booster/car seats), and the driver is old enough to handle the distraction. It doesn't make sense for a family to drive separate cars on the off chance that all will be killed or injured in an accident. That seems a tad extreme.

This type of accident is the exact reason that states have graduated licenses. With teenagers, absolutely limit the number of people in the car. They are simply not capable of handling the distraction or are experienced enough to deal with adverse conditions like a blow out, bad weather, etc. Of course, it helps if you don't fill your vehicle past its capacity.

 

[4nana]

So very tragic , my heart and prayers go out to all involved, their parents and friends. Sadly, this joy ride and irresponsibly of the 15 yo., remaining passengers, and perhaps owner of SUV also, will have to live with the terrible consequences the rest of their lives.

 

[Free4Life11]

I hear about this on the radio...happened right near me. I couldn't believe it when they said nine passengers! How tragic.

If you look at the link, only the driver who was wearing his seat belt has minor injuries. Everyone else is either serious, critical, or dead. When will people GET it and just wear the seat belt? Unless you are 800 pounds there is just no reason not to wear one! It's so sad, maybe some of them would be alive if they had worn a seat belt!

That being said, I would have no idea what to do if my tire blew out and that is one of my fears! It happened once on a family vacation, thank God my dad was driving! I had almost volunteered to drive, but he decided to instead.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'm not very knowledgeable about cars, but this has me wondering: could the overloading of the vehicle have contributed to the blow out or the inability to control it following the blow out?

I imagine that it would have thrown off the weight distribution.

 

[Stacerita]

What a tragic event. That driver made stupid choices, and now will have to face the consequences for the rest of his life.

 

[Shelton123]

I know Karma's a ***** but this time he has gone wayyyy too far

 

[minkydog]

I just hate hearing these things. I know the kids probably planned a day of fun and it's a tragedy that it turned out that way.

Last year we had a Senior Skip Day go awry. It wasn't sanctioned by the school, but some seniors got together anyway, ditched school and headed up to the lake and took a couple underclassmen with them. The spent several hours drinking beer and jumping off the bank into the lake. Then one of them decided he'd swim across.

You know where this is going.

Sure enough, the kid got out halfway and got into trouble. Another kid jumped in to save him and apparently forgot he didn't know how to swim, so he went down next. Then two more kids dived in and swam out to their buddies and both of them went down. The one remaining kid, a 15yo, ran for help but it was too late--4 young men drowned on a day their parents thought they were safe at school.

 

[Disfan1]

What a sad story. I own a '97 Explorer too (the kind that the kids were driving) and it can only hold FIVE passengers safely (seats, belts, etc.) The kids had almost twice that many in there! They probably thought "We're just going to the beach - nothing will happen" So sad for the survivors and families involved...

 

[MrsPete]

That's an awful story, and having taught teenagers for almost two decades I've heard too many variations on it. It goes back to kids thinking nothing bad could ever happen to them.

I knew a bunch of kids who skipped school to go to the zoo -- somehow that's a big thing around here, and we don't even live close to the zoo! Had a wreck on the way up there. Injuries. Bad.

I know -- knew -- one kid who skipped school with a bunch of friends. They were all drinking, driving around, thinking they were just having fun. Next thing anyone knew, this kid from my class started having a seizure -- probably from the alcohol -- and his friends threw him out of the car, left him in a ditch. He died there.

I knew a kid whose parents didn't think it was all that big a deal if he did some drugs -- he knew his limits (yeah, right). They also allowed him to have his girlfriend sleep over (don't know where her parents were in all this). One morning she woke up in his bed, and he was dead. He'd choked on his own vommit, and she was so drunk/drugged up that she'd slept right through it.

Sadly, I could keep listing them.

 

[doxdogy]

According to a tire expert on the news last evening, overloading the car could have lead to the blowout. The driver of the car was only 15 years old. By Florida law he should not have been driving the vehicle without a licensed driver over the age of 21 in the vehicle.

I'm not very knowledgeable about cars, but this has me wondering: could the overloading of the vehicle have contributed to the blow out or the inability to control it following the blow out?

I imagine that it would have thrown off the weight distribution.

 

[DarthKTrava]

So sad to see stuff like this happen.

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

This is horrible. That's why BC has graduated licenses. There's no way a 15 year old could drive 9 people. Didn't anyone of the victims think about this before getting into the SUV?

 

[Erin1700]

So sad. but got me thinking...what do you do when your tire blows? I guess I always thought you try to control the car, but is there something specific you need to do?

 

[Nancy]

You can't even get a permit until age 16 in NY State. Looking at the picture the car doesn't look too bad even for being a rollover, if those kids had belts on this should have been survivable.

Such a tragedy, I feel so bad for all the families.

 

[HunnyPots]

This is horrible. That's why BC has graduated licenses. There's no way a 15 year old could drive 9 people. Didn't anyone of the victims think about this before getting into the SUV?

Of course they didn't - that's the nature of being KIDS! They tend to make very bad choices and not worry about the outcome.

 

[hellokitty86]

It is a horrible tragedy. My Aunt works for the high school they attended (Math teacher) and she knew some of the students that died. She is very upset.

It's my understanding that the day before the accident the principal got on the intercom and said he didn't expect students at school the next day unless they had a test to take. So it's very possible they weren't skipping school without permission. Its horrible how the driver overloaded the car and was the only one wearing a seatbelt...this could have been avoided.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Of course they didn't - that's the nature of being KIDS! They tend to make very bad choices and not worry about the outcome.

Another reason to add to the list why kids shouldn't be getting permits at this age. Sure, there are responsible ones. I keep telling DS that there are things he'll want to do because of peer pressure but he still needs to not do whatever it is. Yeah...let's see how this goes. Thank goodness that at this point, he's not even mentioning driving. He's still happy with Mom's taxi. And he's constantly reminded that he does NOT get in a car with a teenager driving. It's a parent, a coach, or mom.

 

[dicar123]

My husband insists that when our son gets old enough to drive that he will only have an old beater truck. 2 seats. More kids equals more trouble.

I recently learned about a local driver's training course that teaches defensive driving, dealing with blow outs, brake problems, weather, etc. It's got to be worth EVERY cent (and I should probably take it myself!)

I hate reading these stories. The genius who can figure out how to get teens focused on safety and thinking ahead deserves to be a billionaire.