Lived Fast, Died Way Too Young
“Think about that next time you're chatting on your cell phone with your kid in the car, or wolfing down a Big Mac while trying to execute a left-hand turn.”
With all the tragedy that gets play in just one news cycle, it's odd which stories in particular jump up and give you a shot to the gut. This one did it for me. Maybe because I found it on a Web site I usually click to distract me from life's daily tragedies.
I'm an auto enthusiast, and I spend way too much time checking out cars at Edmunds Inside Line. The other day they ran a piece called "The Short, Deadly Story of a Kid and his M5."
In brief: An 18-year-old kid had been posting on a site for BMW M5 enthusiasts that he'd been having trouble paddle-shifting his new M5 at speeds over 140 miles an hour.
Eighteen years old. New M5. Speeds over 140 miles an hour.
A few of the responses, as you can imagine, criticized punk kids with hot, new cars. But a good many of the responders gave heartfelt warnings to the young man to slow down, be careful and not to drive recklessly. The young man was fairly polite in his responses, but claimed that, although he drove fast, he was never reckless.
I'm sure you know where this is going.
He raced the BMW off the end of a runway at a private airstrip. The car traveled about 200 feet through the air before it hit a tree at a height of 15 feet. The driver of the car, 18-year-old Josh Ammirato, was killed. What's worse: There were four other people in the car, all between the ages of 18 and 20. All were killed instantly.
The No. 1 killer of teens is car crashes caused by teen drivers. Not guns, not drugs, not suicide.
There was a study done not too long ago by the Allstate Foundation that found that while most parents are actually aware of this fact, "many parents still: delay safe driving conversations with their teens until shortly before licensure, think their teens are immune to the risk of car crashes, allow their teens to drive or ride in dangerous conditions and model unsafe behavior behind the wheel."
Think about that next time you're chatting on your cell phone with your kid in the car, or wolfing down a Big Mac while trying to execute a left-hand turn.
I have.
That's why I watched the news clip of this accident with my young son, who's still got about a dozen years to go before he hits the road. Some might think he's too young to know of such things.
Maybe.
But I don't want to wait until it's too late to find out I didn't start soon enough.
12:53 PM ET | 02-14-2008 | permalink
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