Kay -N- Kay

Three kids died a couple of miles from my house yesterday.  Two of them lived right in my small Detroit suburb.  Any one of them could be my son in 10 years.

Three teenagers in a car, on their way to another friend’s house.  For whatever reason, the driver decides to pick it up a notch.  And then another.  At 90 mph, I imagine he’s thinking, “Fuck yeah.  Gunna hit a hundred.  Just 10 more.” The passengers may have been scared and telling him to slow down, but I think they were more likely laughing wildly.  At 18 you’re immortal and 100 mph is something to be experienced.  Something to tell your friends about later, like a badge you can wear saying, “I drove 100+ mph”

I don’t know how anyone survives their youth.  I think it’s got to be more luck than anything else.  When I was 18, I remember a dozens of times eerily similar to what I described above.  Not all in a car, screaming towards fate at double or triple the speed limit.  There are plenty of other ways for a teenager to die live.  But at least one time was 5 of us in a car, driving too fast, even though we knew it was too fast.  The country road was slick as it had just rained, but when you’re a teenager, you love to go fast.  We should have been able to slow down for the turn, but it was wet and we were going too fast… like we knew it was and we were.  We were laughing and clutching at the seats, handles, and sides inside of the car, just wondering when Chris would start slowing down for the curve ahead.  Loving the moment.  The wheels slid… because it was wet… we went off the road instead of turning with the curve… because we were going too fast… and hit a telephone pole at probably 35 – 45 mph.

No one died.  We hit the pole on the front corner of the car which allowed some momentum to be redirected elsewhere.  In fact, the only one who was hurt was myself with a minor cut on my leg.  We all walked away from the car and shakily called the police from a nearby home.  Someone said later on that another 6 inches towards the center of the car and we’d all have died.  That may or may not have been true, but even if it wasn’t, we were courting death for those few seconds and instinctively, we knew it.

The three teenagers in the wreck yesterday were not so lucky.  They didn’t hit the brick and cinder block sign on just the front corner of their car.  The only place to which their momentum was redirected was straight into their bodies.  From 100 mph to 0 in under a second is a lot of force to absorb…

…even when you’re immortal.