Tuesday, August 6, 2013

"Jane, Stop This Crazy Thing"

Van turns onto Bay Road from S. East St, Canterbury Lane directly above


A Granby teenager picked the wrong hill to descend in South Amherst at the wrong time of day sending him and his skateboard careening into oncoming traffic on busy Bay Road around 6:30 last night.

Although seriously injured it's still pretty amazing the accident was not fatal.  To the skateboarder due to a sudden impact, or the driver suffering a heart attack due to the sudden shock. 

Amherst and Mass State Police closed off the road for a couple hours to do an accident reconstruction.  For the rest of you, all you need do is look at the photo. Yikes!

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Gazette coverage was timely for a change.  Probably doesn't hurt that their owner and CEO Aaron Julien lives atop Canterbury Lane (although he needs to learn how to use a camera).


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I drove by this last night around 9:00. lots of cops and one jeep on a flat bed with a busted windshield! I thought some one went threw it. I guess it was more like a bounced off of it scenario.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, I find it interesting how differently this is being covered from when a UMass student does something equally stupid.

And I'm being consistent here: "equally stupid."

Larry Kelley said...

I'm being my usual snarky self.

Anonymous said...

Sad news. Puts fear into every parent of a teen boy.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, you (and others) can be as snarky as you wish, but this is one case where public humiliation might actually save lives.

UMass students really aren't going to care about what you say about them, but high school students -- kids who are aware that their parents will read what you write -- very much will care.

If you come out and call this kid stupid -- and name him -- maybe even name his parents (and I'm only assuming it's a "he" -- young ladies can and often do things every bit as stupid) -- if you do that, there will be a couple hundred teenagers having second thoughts about some of the things they might otherwise do.

("Stupid" is one of the few things a teenager doesn't want to be called -- that's why I am using that word and not others such as "reckless" or "dangerous".)

More importantly, it's going to create a peer pressure not to do such "stupid" things -- no matter how much courage it would show you have -- it will give the well-intended girl something to say to stop things. It will give the boy (who is bright enough to be afraid but can't admit it) an excuse not to do the stupid thing, even if others are doing it.

"You might get hurt" will be dismissed with teenage bravado, but "someone will tell that A**h**e Larry Kelly -- and my parents won't let me go out with you any more when they see it in his blog" -- that's something a young lady can say that will stop a young man who is trying to impress her.

The fact that the young lady herself might also get into trouble because she is seen in a picture of some dangerous stunt -- even in the background -- is something everyone is going to know as well. And it isn't machismo anymore if you get the girl into trouble...

It's something that enables children of both genders to not do something while "saving face" -- and if you can save some kid's life by being hated -- well Larry, have you ever cared before about people not liking you?

I'm told it's tough to raise teenagers in a college town -- the worse message you (and the APD) can possibly give them is that they'll get a pass, that they won't be humiliated the way the UM kids are.

I don't know what the APD protocol is when they find a mostly-sober ARSD kid at a UM party on these noise complaint calls, but I know what it SHOULD BE -- take to the station and demand a parent come pick up -- and unless the kid is *really* drunk, I doubt they do that.

And when someone has died -- no, that you let go, but a case like this where the kid is going to heal -- make that cast a "white badge of shame." Other parents love their kids as much as you love yours -- think about it that way...

Larry, this is the flip side of why I didn't print the story about the sex scandal that caused UM to pull out of Mark's Meadow -- one of the parties involved then had children in the Middle School and I didn't want my newspaper on the school bus -- and I only mention that (publicly) now because it's been more than a decade now.

Dr. Ed said...

Sad news. Puts fear into every parent of a teen boy.

Or girl. Some of them are every bit as athletic, every bit as daring -- and every bit as "stupid" as the boys are.

We've achieved equality -- for good and for worse -- and teenaged girls can be every bit as wild -- they are just better at talking their way out of things.

And this is why I say that publicly humiliating the teenagers as being "stupid" will actually put a reign on some of their poorer judgments.

And it's only a matter of time before "Tombstoning" comes to "The States."

Walter Graff said...

"We've achieved equality -- for good and for worse -- and teenaged girls can be every bit as wild -- they are just better at talking their way out of things. "

Girls are no better at boys in talking their way out of things. Feminism-gone-wild has allowed girls to use the system quite well to talk their way out of things though, a licence to destroy families for one with 95% of ROs being false accusations and learned through feminist "abuse" groups aka federally funded programs that give feminists careers as male bashers. I guess if you can't talk your way out of something you simply use feminist funded rules to get what you want. Not much in the way of equality actually. Feminism took a very wrong turn some years ago.

Anonymous said...

Are you for real Walter? I know you in person from Fort River - I never would have guessed you are as over the top as you seem to be on this blog. You seem like such a nice guy in person. Do you really believe the stuff you write here or are you just pulling our leg with your beyond the pale comments. I really hope it's the latter. I can't imagine anyone actually believing the things you say here.

Failmenism and the Ponziville pyramiders said...

I believe everything he says and more.


~Much~ more.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBgcjtE0xrE&list=TLwyJ3oIKQ29k