In 2018 three siblings were killed and another child was severely injured when a pickup truck hit them as they were crossing the street to get on the school bus one dark October morning. Since the incident happened in nearby Marshall County it was all over the local news and soon became national headlines. When the accident happened I just couldn't fathom why the driver hadn't stopped when she saw the bus. I took Cameron to Bethany every day in the dark and felt that it was extremely easy to spot a bus as most not only had flashing lights on the top, but had also incorporated yellow lights in each of the windows.
I didn't think much about the accident again until the trial began a year later. It was an emotional one and covered daily by Ink Free News, our local online media source. In the end the twenty-five year old female driver was found guilty of reckless homicide and sentenced to four years in jail followed by three years home detention and three years probation. The mother of the three children who were killed was so upset with the sentence that she lunged at the defendant in the courtroom threatening her with bodily harm. Those on social media seemed to agree with the mother that the sentence was too light equating the crime with that of murder.
Although I could completely understand the mother being distraught enough to threaten the driver, I couldn't agree with the comments of the public. I thought the sentence seemed appropriate for the charges as the pickup driver wasn't texting or driving under the influence. It was an unfortunate accident that needed a punishment, but the death sentence that the public asked for on social media didn't seem appropriate, neither did the hate they were spewing.
The one part that I still could never understand, however, was how she missed the school bus. I didn't want to judge the driver, but it just seemed impossible to me that she would have completely disregarded the bright lights in front of her even if it was on the opposite side of the road. My opinion changed drastically yesterday while I was driving to Cameron's golf tournament. As Meg and I passed through small town after small town on our way to Rochester talking about what life must have been in each of them, we neared Mentone. I told Meg that its claim to fame was being the egg basket capital of the midwest. She stopped a minute and then said, "Isn't that where those children were killed walking to the bus." After thinking about it, I realized that she was correct and we were actually on the same state road where the accident occurred.
Meg and I kept our eyes open for the trailer park that was the scene of the accident for the rest of the trip and soon spotted a large memorial sign for the three children along with flowers and teddy bears lining the fence displaying it. As we envisioned the scene from the driver's perspective we realized that there was a lot more to it than just missing the lights of the bus. The speed limit on the state road was 55 miles per hour. It was heavily traveled and an S curve led into the entrance of the trailer park where the children were crossing the road to catch the bus. Although the driver should have slowed when she saw flashing lights, I truly believe that she would not have been able to distinguish what type of vehicle it was, especially with all of the trees surrounding the road. Both Meg and I remarked after seeing the scene of the accident that the school and the trailer park should have also been held responsible for not providing a safe place for the children to get on the bus without crossing the road. As the local news had reported that their had been numerous complaints about the bus crossing, I thought that those two entities should have been held to an even higher degree of responsibility of the children's deaths. They had to know that it was an unsafe bus stop. It was obviously a poor area of the community and I wondered if decisions would have been made differently had it been an affluent subdivision instead of a worn down trailer park. Either way it was a good reminder not to judge anyone until you've had a chance to walk in their shoes. With all of the negativity on social media right now, I wish that more people would come to that realization.
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