The headline in the Vancouver Sun of Friday, April 18, read, "Jimmy gave his life for the thrill of speed." Yet another youth from Greater Vancouver died at the wheel of a speeding car.
Jimmy was sixteen years old and did not have a driver's licence. The time of his death was about 1:30 a.m. The stolen 1989 Ford Mustang he was driving slammed into a power pole at about 160 kilometres per hour. Police know this because the speedometer was frozen at 160 km. What they and others do not know is why Jimmy was out at that time, why he had stolen a car and why he was driving at such an outrageous speed on a city street. Perhaps none of us will ever know the answers.
What is know, however, is that the debris from Jimmy's accident knocked out a fire hydrant, moved a stone retaining wall from its foundations and knocked apart a fence three houses away from the accident scene. The Mustang was split into three pieces. We also know that Jimmy had attended a youth offender rehabilitation facility and was released last February.
Media reports tell of a grizzly scene: three doors from the accident shards of glass littered a resident's yard; the front end of the Mustang was in the driveway of a nearby resident; the rear section was wrapped around the power pole that Jimmy slammed into at 100 miles per hour; the top of the car was sitting in yet another driveway.
Ironically, a plaque honouring Jimmy for being the "Most Organized Student," awarded by the Cariboo Action Training Society in Prince George, BC, is near where he died; it is hanging from a hastily erected wooden cross that bears his name and the date of his senseless death.
The Prince George four-month residential programme is for male young offenders between ages 12 and 18 years. It is a wilderness-based training facility specialising in woodshop, outdoor education and life skills.
In the same suburban municipality only a few days earlier, another Ford Mustang swerved across a street and slammed into a Pontiac Firebird and killed five young men.
Why is it necessary to mention the vehicle types? Simply, to show that these vehicles are high-powered and when in the hands of inexperienced drivers [or wanna be drivers] they become lethal weapons that far-too-often cause death to both the driver and innocent victims.
Statistics are often rather bland but do bear witness to fact. Two such facts are that in 2001, there were seventy-seven fatalities in British Columbia among youths aged 13 to 21 years. Youths were involved in more than fifty-three thousand vehicle crashes that same year.
Two other statistics: youths account for eight per cent of the 2.8 million drivers in British Columbia but youth-associated auto insurance claims account for twenty-nine per cent of the $772 million paid out in 2001 by the Insurance Corporation of B.C. [Source: ICBC]
A few days after Jimmy's death, a 15-year-old Abbottsford boy wrote this letter to the editor of the Vancouver Sun.
In B.C., teenagers are able to get a driver's licence at 16. This is too young. I should know, I'm turning 16 in December. However, I feel very somber [sic] about driving. For example, what if I get into a car accident and die? The idea that my parents would hold a press conference about my death is too devastating to think about.
Most teenagers spend a lot of their time playing video games. Many of these games simulate car races with speeds of 200 km/h. Movies also make car racing look fun and make teenagers want to copy their heroes. One of my friends got his driver's licence last year. He loves computer-racing games and now drives his car like a video game. He is only 17 and has already received $2,000 in driving fines. His licence has been taken away, but he still drives. I worry that his face will be the next one on the front page.
I wish adults would do more to protect us. Schools should have driver education, including simulated accidents to scare teenagers.
As much as I hate to admit it, I think the driving age should be changed to 20. I know I am not ready to drive: I am just a kid.
Sadly, the message for help that this Abbottsford boy has sent will probably fall on deaf ears. Parents will continue to look the other way as they dream that their sons or daughters can do no wrong.
Sadly, the provincial government will look the other way as it continues with its agenda of cutbacks with the result that much-needed programmes such as the school driver education mentioned continue to be ignored. There was time in B.C. high schools when such training was part of the curricula; but that was more than a few decades ago.
Sadly, the police forces will continue to attend at crashes such as the one that took Jimmy' life.
Sadly, the police forces will continue to plead with parents and teenagers alike to take more responsibility for their actions [or, non-actions in the case of some parents].
Sadly, the daily and community newspapers will continue to carry front-page stories of death and destruction as teenagers die on city streets.
Sadly, it seems that nobody cares anymore.
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In Monday's column, the word 'heals' was inadvertently used rather than the correct 'heels.' Put the error down to gremlins but know that it was truly caused by haste.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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