Speed kills...

It's my weekend to work here in the Napa Valley.

I left my monastic-like room at the hospital and went to the unit at 6:30 this morning. Overnight, there had been a nasty car wreck less than a mile from the hospital.

There is a private Adventist College on top of the mountain. Seems that four students were traveling in a car at a high rate of speed down the four mile hill, lost control and drifted into the oncoming lane. A head-on accident. Three cars. Alcohol was involved.

Four students died. Another driver is in a hospital (not ours). And another is in jail with a DUI.

Since this is an Adventist Hospital with a working relationship with the college, and a small community to boot, deaths are taken hard. Especially such tragic deaths. So senseless. It rattles everyone: first responders, nurses, school professors, residents.

Having lived full-time here in the Napa Valley, these lethal accidents happen way too much. Yes, alcohol is often involved (after all, this is the wine growing region). But most often, excessive speed is the culprit. The area where this accident occurred had just been upgraded. A new road. So what's the temptation on a road that has been just upgraded? To speed!

These roads are country roads; not expressways. I'm always amazed at the foolish driving that I see daily in this area. Frankly, I think that there should be prison sentences for speeding. Putting others in danger is an anti-social act. And the consequences should match the crime. This time, for these four college kids, the consequence was death.

Let's add driving to the Slow movement.