I am appalled to hear that this behavior continues. That this ‘stupid’, irresponsible ‘adult’ was put in charge of the safety of other people just blows me away.
A driver of a van full of children died Sunday in a vehicle rollover on I-15 while on the way to church.
The 35-year-old woman, identified as Delta Arellano Moreno, was the only one among the van's 10 occupants wearing a seat belt, according to the Utah Highway Patrol. The criminality of this single act needs to be broadcast far and wide. She belted herself in but not the nine children. Six of the nine children in the van with her were ejected when it rolled. My heart is breaking as I write this. What the hell was this woman doing behind the wheel of a vehicle?
Some fool out there is going to say “Oh look, duh, the only person who died was the one wearing the seat belt, ha, ha, ha.” Look fool, the children were thrown from the van. Sure seat belts do not always save lives, obviously, their effectiveness depends on several factors such as the severity of the accident or where the impact occurs, etc. But the fact remains that these passengers should have been belted in and not thrown from the vehicle, They could have possibly been run over by another vehicle.
People need to be punished with more than a financial threat because that threat is not working. Does anyone think it is working? If the threat was working then people would be taking the simple act of buckling up seriously. How much time does it take to buckle a damn belt? People cannot possibly be foolish enough to think that seat belts don’t save lives. Or, maybe I am wrong.
Far too many drivers don’t think about safety on our roads. This is why people drive recklessly, this is why people speed past others over the limit, this is why people swerve in front of others to make a turn, this is why people tailgate, and generally terrorize everyone else on the road.
There was a 15-year-old girl in this vehicle, why didn’t she see to it that these other children were buckled in. Is there any responsibility being taught in this family? She was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center in critical condition. Three others, ranging in age from 10 to 13, were taken to local hospitals in serious condition. An infant and four other children were hospitalized in fair condition.
I-15 was shut down for about three hours Sunday afternoon to allow a medical helicopter to land and to allow crews to clean up after the accident.
Are these adults not watching the news, do they not hear how easily and unexpectedly accidents happen, are they not aware of the danger of not wearing seatbelts, are they just stupid? My God, seatbelts come as standard equipment, people don’t even have to spend extra money to get them.
Let’s look at all the costs incurred by this accident. First, and foremost was the senseless death of this woman, the loss of future care-giving to the members of her family and the loss of possible future income she could have brought to this family. Next, is the unnecessary suffering of those victims laying in hospital beds right now and the medical expenses now facing this family’s surviving members. Investigators don’t know yet the cause of this accident, maybe, possibly, it was the fault of some other careless driver. There is the financial cost of the emergency responders (police and ambulance), the cleanup crew afterwards, the wasted time to all the other drivers caught in the resulting traffic backup, the use of policemen and ambulance crews that could be somewhere else, the medical personnel at the hospitals who could have been helping other people who were not so stupid.
I chose this story to vent my rage because it involved children under the care of yet another stupid, irresponsible adult. But there are, sadly, so many others.
A few minutes before midnight on Saturday, two Utah County residents died on State Route 189 near Wallsburg in Wasatch County after their SUV slid off the road, hit a signpost and rolled. Martin Gonzalez Sanchez, 24, of Orem, and April Lynn Torres, 15, of Provo, were ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. Neither was wearing a seat belt, officials said.
On Saturday in Spanish Fork Canyon, Alice May Olsen, 65, was killed after her car and a semi-trailer truck collided head on. The West Jordan woman had been weaving in and out of traffic before she hit a produce truck from Texas, according to the Utah
Highway Patrol. Authorities believe fatigue was the cause of the 4 p.m. accident. This accident highlights another major problem on our roads. Driving while fatigued. Why did she not just pull into a parking lot and take a nap? Why didn’t she think of this little life saver action? Now she cost her family her presence, she cost the owner of that produce truck part of their livelihood.
How many times are these stories to be repeated across this country? Every day?
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