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Friday, September 14, 2012

A Letter To The Editor 9-14-12

Yesterdays death of a kid riding his dirt bike on the road as tragic as it was should be a wakeup call to all parents, everyday kids are flying up and down city and county roads on dirt bikes 90% of the time with no protection on, by the time you call the Sherriff or city police they are long gone or take off down dirt trails.

I did my fair share of riding on BACK country roads on a dirt bike between trails when I was a kid, but I also respected cars and rode on the grass when any traffic was coming which was rare and I wore my helmet anytime I got on the bike. These days kids are doing wheelies down main city roads with no helmets on, it is almost like they are daring someone to pull out in front of them.

Now you have a bus driver and other people in that bus and neighbors that are traumatized for the rest of their lives having to live through that and see what they saw, I do not wish that upon anyone. We also have 2 families that are affected by this tragedy, hopefully the other young boy pulls through this.

What can we as a community do to help save these kids lives? Would taking a picture or video from a cell phone be of any help to the police?

It is a shame when you know something like this is going to happen, you just don't know when or how and now I am asking myself could anything have been done to prevent it.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lock your dirt bikes and ATV's up so they don't get stolen. That is one of the best preventative measures.

Anonymous said...



Reading this breaks my heart. Dirt bike vs car and the car is going to win out everytime. Helmets help but only so much. I'm a firm believer that if a parent is going to allow a child one of these things then please please please make sure they have a safe place to use it. The street is not safe and in the end when a death is involved it really makes no difference who is at fault.

Anonymous said...

I am sorry for the loss these families are suffering through. I think of the bus driver that will be ridiculed because of teenagers thinking they are invincible.
My question is what instruction/rules were put in place by the parents?
Our children were driving at 16, and no other child, other than a sibling, were allowed in the vehicle. They knew the result of being caught, no licence or freedoms until over age 18!
Parents are busy, I understand this. Your children should be one of your most important responsbilities. Know what they're doing, who they are hanging around with. A bad influence, direct your child/teen in another direction. You as the parent can be the 'bad guy' so your child/teen isn't ridiculed by peers for the outcome of no longer hanging out with the bad elements. We need to keep our children safe; they are our future.

Queensgirl52 said...

I'm sick to death of the stupid, dangerous behavior of some young people on the roads. The speed cameras are a joke as long as kids cross the street in the middle of the block from behind a big parked van and appear without warning in front of your moving car. (Happened to me on Monday.) We have speed cameras and a nice traffic light at the Onley Road/South Division intersection, but some of the SU bicyclists insist on shooting across South Division on the red light. (This happened to me on Wednesday.) Did anyone ever teach these people traffic safety?

Anonymous said...

What can we do to prevent this? Is that what I hear or read?
Answer is : As parents we are the responsible for what happens to our children. End of solution! ! !

Anonymous said...

I do not put the blame soley on these kids. Their issues started as a todler with the lack of parental supervision, and discipline. Although this death and injury is tragic for everyone involved, it most likely will cost all of us a fortune after the not so involved parents finaly get involved in their childrens lives by filing a lawsuit to try and get some money "in the memory of their child who they never properly raised anyway". I had a dirt bike growing up, as did many of my friends, but we drove them in the fields and on the railroad tracks with helmets on always.

There is a growing majority of kids in this community and many others in this country, that either will end up dead from stuff like this, dead from violence or in jail for the majority of their lives. We as parents have failed our children and for certain eco/socionomic groups it will continue. We can not rely on the Government to take care of us or our children and thats why plenty of kids and teens are dying becuase people don't have the knowledge, ability, and financial means to properly raise children but yet they continue to have more and more children.

Anonymous said...

More than once in Salisbury, I have had a group of young kids/teens walk across the street and I have to slam on the brakes so I don't hit them. The bad thing is, they look at me while they are crossing with smirks on their faces daring me not to slow down. Usually it's the boys, and the girls decide to wait and cross after I pass.

Anonymous said...

The 11:02 comment has me curious.Was the motorcycle stolen?

Anonymous said...

We have a teenager here in Hebron who rides his dirt bike on main street everyday! Several people call the sherriffs dept and you are by the time they get he is gone or has put it up and he does NOT respect people on sidewalk or cars on the street

Anonymous said...

Skateboarders riding on the streets are just as dangerous, I've had two close encounters with them in the last month in and near Fruitland.

Anonymous said...

There's no doubt in my mind that his parents are feeling responsible right now. A child died. Their world will never be the same. Please be respectful. No need to place blame. Their own personal blame will be something they live with forever.

Anonymous said...

2:13 PM I heard it was.

Queensgirl52 said...

All due respect to you, 3:49 PM, but all we can hope for when tragedies like this occur is that other people will learn something from them. If there's no open discussion about why these tragedies happen, there will be no learning. We've missed a lot of opportunities for learning in the name of "not blaming the victim.>

Anonymous said...

Queensgirl52...

AMEN!!! Thank you for saying that. A child does something stupid and someone raises the point about more and more kids are doing more and more stupid things and then you always has that IDIOT that chimes in with "Oh the parents are at home crying their eyes out because they lost their most precious gift." Well if it was such a precious gift, maybe they should have had better watch over that gift. There is a big difference between a 2 year old running into the road after a ball and a 16 year old illegally on a public road with a motorcycle.

Anonymous said...

the bike was not stolen he saved up his own money and bought it..you can put that rumor to rest now..