The cover story in this morning's Sun Times has been at the back of my mind all day.
Three college students died on Lower Wacker, a serpentine stretch of road that cuts through downtown Chicago, punctuated by few lights and slowed by little traffic. It's a road I know well and use regularly - it's the fastest route from I-290 to Lake Shore Drive. It's a fun place to drive fast. It's not the safest; there are also a few blind turns, blind on-ramps, and driveways to truck docks. Last night's wet road conditions made it dangerous, the kids had a fast car. It was bound to happen. They didn't have to die.
And I can't help but think that these kids didn't have to die. Kids. And that I would have driven it safely... mostly because age and experience would have me making more conservative choices in the same situation. I feel like an adult.
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6 comments:
hah, when i read the news this morning, i was like, im going tell julie to slow the hell down if i ever get in her car again to go down lower wacker. you knew how much i hated the speeding...
Hey,
Did I tell you my grandparents were in a car accident in December? Hit head-on by a drunk driver on a two-lane highway in the middle of the afternoon. The doctors expected them both to die, but they didn't. Now, after three months in hospital/rehab, they've just returned home. And obviously my whole family is just thrilled and grateful. But then, in the light of this story...two eighty-year-olds live; three twenty-year-olds die. The world doesn't make much sense.
Peishan - oddly enough, they were on the wide straight part that's east of Michigan Ave (though travelling west), not the more technical part from basically Michigan Ave to 290.
Andrew, no, you didn't; I'm glad they survived the incident. No, the world doesn't make much sense...
which is all the more why you should slow down when you go down the more technical part.
it all depends on luck i guess. anyone can go any time, any where.
Hey, that helps. By what you said at the end, I guess I'm an adult too.
Never feel like one, though.
My link (I-290 to Lake Shore Drive) isn't showing up properly for some reason... but it lets you (if you're not from around here) see what I'm talking about.
Jon, yeah, I guess in some ways we are entering the age of wisdom...
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