Thoughts on the deaths of 4 girls

The death of a 3-year-old girl in KC whose apartment was hit by a run-away mail truck and
the deaths of three teenagers in Blue Valley whose convertible crashed while they were driving to a softball game

News reports from Kansas City this week told of two separate traffic accidents in which young people, in both cases, all female, were killed. The run-away mail truck raised questions about the training and and selection of people we assign the responsibility of driving large trucks in our community, whether they work for the postal service or any other organization. (more)

Also, questions were raised about the design of an off-ramp which channeled traffic toward an apartment building. Many have called for the destruction of the building which has been damaged, so that no future inhabitants will be injured by any future run-away vehicles. But the age of the apartment building and the age of the off-ramp shown in news photos indicates that the apartment building was there first. (more)

We have also been confronted, once again, with the consequences of too much speed and too little care for safety by the 15-year-old girls killed while driving to their softball game. News reports state that the girls in the back seat were sitting on top of the trunk of the Mustang convertible and that the driver was exceeding the speed limit on the 2-lane road. We middle-aged commentators wonder why teenagers never learn from the bad behavior of previous teenagers, and why parents give kids so much freedom when they should know better. (more)