a brush with someone else's death

In my last post, I mentioned seeing a pretty bad accident on my way home from Bean's place on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I heard yesterday on the news just how bad the accident was. Turns out some drunk kid left the bars at Armory Square and was driving his SUV the wrong way up 81 (north in the southbound lanes). He crashed head-on into another guy's car and killed him. Here is the Post-Standard's coverage and follow-up. According to the article in the paper, the wreck happened at 2:30 a.m., meaning I was right about driving by it just after the cops got there. I thought it had been a minivan involved instead of an SUV, because it was sitting so low to the ground when I drove by. The Pontiac was just crumpled. A few minutes earlier, and it could've been Lucy sitting there crumpled on the side of the road - it could've been me eulogized in yesterday's papers. That's kinda... terrifying.

The drunk driver kid had been drinking in Armory Square - what I want to know is, how did the bars there let him leave so piss-drunk and get into his car? I know, it's not their job to babysit all their patrons - but you'd think someone would have noticed and stopped him from driving off. If he was drunk enough to end up driving the wrong way on a divided highway... I just don't understand how something like this happens.

The name of the kid who was killed was Billy Leaf. My heart goes out to the Leaf family. I can't imagine how awful this must be for them.

Always have Designated Drivers, kids! And if you're getting hammered at a bar alone, you're not leaving until you're good and sober (or you're getting home in a taxi).