Friday, July 20, 2007

Tragedy

Tonight a carload of 16 year old kids hit an elderly woman head on and killed her. The kids walked away pretty much unscathed. No alcohol or drugs were involved, the driver just wasn't paying attention, just for a moment.

This happened right here in my home town, where my 16 year old drives with her friends, and is known to not pay close attention at times. The unlucky participants of this tragedy were brought to my hospital. Initially we all ran around, gathering up O negative emergency release blood and thinking we could do some good. After a while it became obvious we couldn't.

See why I worry?

And then (I'm not sure if this is the insult or the injury) the father of the teenage driver arrived at the hospital and demanded his son be released to him immediately. He kept yelling, "What's the holdup??"

Uh...the holdup involves the fact that your son killed someone tonight, and that's noteworthy enough to require his presence...at least for a while. There are magazines in the lobby if the process bores you.

So...what's more awful than not paying attention and killing someone with your car 6 months after you get a license? How about going though that horror with your asshole dad who finds vehicular manslaughter inconvenient.

Is there any wonder why I want to live in the woods with my girlfriend and my cats and ducks?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this parent is typical of the parents with whom i'd been involved in juvie cases. their kid can do no wrong, and why are they being victimized? these are parents who've never said no to their kids, and as a result, they're raising a generation of kids who have a completely abnormal sense of entitlement - 'i want what i want when i want it'. these are the parents who've never made their kids accountable to anyone, including themselves. these are the parents who run to the schools to bitch about a teacher who had the temerity to give their kid a D for never passing in homework, or for flunking a test. these are the parents who, when they're older & sick, will wonder why their kid doesn't give a shit about them & sticks them in the nearest nursing home.

Suzanne said...

What scares me more is the possibility that the dad is going to whup the kid for inconveniencing him.