In browsing social media yesterday, I saw this cryptic message from a classmate that said words to the effect of I can’t talk about what happened over the weekend, please send prayers. We aren’t close, we know each other from going to school together. However, I am nosy by nature and wanted to know what the world happened. So a little googling and I got my answer.
My classmates son was driving himself and a friend home on Saturday night. These are kids in there early 20’s with their entire lives ahead of them. It was raining and the driver (my classmates son) took a corner too fast for conditions and totaled his truck. His passenger wasn’t wearing his seat belt and from the photos I was able to track down this kid was very large. Anyway he (the passenger) was ejected from the vehicle and killed instantly. This is all very tragic but then the police found a bunch of empty beer cans in the truck. They smelled a faint smell of alcohol on the driver. He was injured and treated at a local hospital and was arrested for DWI. He bonded out of jail, can’t have alcohol while on release and has to have an alcohol monitoring device. If he is convicted he faces 10 years in jail.
Here’s the worst part my classmate is a police officer. It wasn’t handled by his department because it occurred in a different venue and the State is involved. His son knew enough not to talk to the police he asked for an attorney, refused breath and blood tests. They had to get a warrant to draw his blood. The results of the blood test were not made public. By refusing the blood test he automatically loses his license for 1 year.
Holy shit I was taken back. This isn’t the type of thing you think a police officers son would get involved with. DWI is bad enough but killing a friend that is a double whammy that will play over and over again in that kids mind. A bunch of lives were changed forever in an instant. We lose sight of how fragile life is until you hear of an event like this.
There will also be a mountain of expenses incurred as a result of this. There will be a criminal trial as well a most probably a civil lawsuit for wrongful death. This will not be a cheap mistake or one that is easily erased. I am sure there is more to the story than I will ever know and that’s okay. The kid will eventually be able to put this behind him but that will take years. It’s a felony since there was death or serious injury, so that will prohibit the kid from landing a decent job for quite sometime. There’s more than the actual money paid at trial or in lawsuits, the repercussions run wide and deep.
I wanted to say something to my classmate because I feel bad for him. Last year he was injured in a wreck in the line of duty when someone not paying attention hit his patrol car while he was in a pursuit. It’s like bad luck just keeps on following him. I started to type a comment and then stopped. I composed a message to send but erased it. I am just at a complete and utter loss for what to say. The perfunctory Thoughts & Prayers comment is what was mostly left on the post. I don’t think that does it justice, I want to say so much more but somethings are better left unsaid.
Look were all young and dumb, most of us did things that we were simply lucky with getting away with. Drinking and Driving is something that was really preached about when I was in school along with drugs. Being a cop I am sure my classmate has seen his fair share of death and accidents. I am sure he imparted that knowledge and wisdom into his kids.
This is just a tragedy all the way around. I have problems of my own but right now they are so minor compared to this that I feel silly in even complaining. Nothing like hearing of something like this to make you count your blessings. I hope that something positive can come out of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment