O‘ahu’s Hau‘ula community grieves over the senseless deaths of 4 teenagers in two separate accidents at the same exact spot this weekend. The second two deaths occurred as two teens stood at the spot of the first accident and were run over by another speeding vehicle. I spent three years as a police officer on the island of Maui, and witnessed first-hand several unbelievable acts of stupidity that lead to deaths. They probably should have been classified as suicide as it was inconceivable that the victims didn’t realize that they were probably going to die. One example was an individual who apparently was playing Russian roulette with an automatic handgun (note to the munitions-impared: if there is a single bullet in an automatic handgun, chances are pretty darn good it’s in the chamber and will fire if the trigger is pulled). Another was a teenage riding on the open lift-gate of a pickup truck, dragging his feet on the asphalt as the vehicle proceeded down the highway at about 55 MPH. Apparently at some point his heel caught in the asphalt, he was pulled off the truck bed and experienced severe skull trauma as the back of his head hit the road. I heard that he died instantly.
You can only pray that your children know better, but praying doesn’t always work. Educate them. Please. It doesn’t always work, and unfortunately knowing that you did all that you could is small consolation in a case like this.
