Waiting for the real story

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
July 3, 2012

The Northwest Herald has a little more of the story about the double-fatality auto crash just outside Woodstock early Sunday morning.

The first story and today's both said that Alec Kaiser was driving and that Jacob Norys was the passenger. In today's story Alec's grandfather is attributed with saying that Alec sneaked out of the house in the middle of the night and left with Norys.

Was Jacob already there, or did he show up to pick up Alec.

Who owned the Hyundai Elantra?

Did Kaiser or Norys have a driver's license? What type?

The paper said that under state law neither should have been driving between 11:00PM and 6:00AM, because he wasn't coming back from a job. Is that the only reason?

And where were the two boys before the crash? Were they at a large party? Where was it? Someone's home? Parents anywhere in sight? Alcohol? If so, will the host of the party, whether minor or adult, be charged with providing alcohol to minors? Was there a keg with one of Woodstock's infamous keg tags?

Woodstock High School Principal had grief counselors available at school on Monday. When did it become a school's responsibility to provide what a family ought to provide? It's summer. School is closed. It's the parent(s) who should be supporting their child through the grieving process, not a school counselor.

On the website of the Illinois Secretary of State, Secretary Jesse White has written, ""Sadly, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for people age 15 to 20. My top goal as your Secretary of State is to save lives by reducing fatal traffic crashes. When I established the Teen Driver Safety Task Force the goal was to improve Illinois' graduated driver licensing (GDL) law and, even more importantly, to save lives. I am encouraged that teen driving deaths have dropped by 50 percent since the law took effect January 1, 2008."

The purpose of a school is to educate. Perhaps more of that should be done in the area of driver's education, hammering home to kids that their health and lives are at risk every time they get in a car, whether they are a driver or passenger. In some schools students visit State Police headquarters and view photographs of fatal wrecks. Some are taken to graveyards. Some schools put a wrecked car out front on the lawn and gather students around it.

Kids think today it won't happen to them.