Teens and Driving

I always worry when my daughter get behind the wheel of her car. Not because I don't think she is a good driver because she is. But I worry about her being a defensive driver. You know trying to anticipate what the other drivers are doing.

Last Thursday I attended the funeral, or let me say, tried to, because I couldn't get into my own church to get a seat due to more than 700 folks attending too. I was there to support the family of 19-year-old Tramell Jackson, who died on Sept. 20, in a fatal car accident with three of his friends. They apparently were leaving the wake of another young man and the driver was driving too fast and skidded over a 100 foot over pass to their death. Tramell was not only a church family member, but he was once a member of Future Builders, a group I co-found with two other business associates to work with teens and introduce them to culture, social and other activities such as the weekly rap session group we facilitated. He really was a good teenager. He was not the driver but was a back seat rider.

Another young girl who graduated high school with my daughter died this past weekend when she and her friend left college to visit her mom for the weekend. A truck driver felled asleep and ran head on into the young college students killing them instantly. The truck driver was hired by Brett Micheals, former lead singer of the group Poison and he was driving on suspended license. The two young ladies were good students and were both 19.

One of my employee's 17 year-old grand daughter ended up hospitalized after having this accident.

She was blessed that she only had to stay in the hospital one day. I don't know what we have to do to keep our children safe. I guess we just keep praying.