No matter where you turn—in shops, on the street, this evening in the Small Plates bistro—everyone but everyone is talking about the death last night of the 17 year old girl in a car crash on the B5105. It's odd, yet somehow not, how the community comes together in such circumstances as these. Mercifully, there's been nothing like this since Sara MacCarter in 2004, also 17. She hit a tree while driving. That was 15 years ago and at 32, now, perhaps she could've been with a family of her own. In that same year, 2004, Sara's cousin Elgan Williams, 16, of Henllan and her second cousin Iwan Gwilym Owen, 18, of Llansannan, also died in road crashes.
Back to yesterday's victim and if you listen to the conversations it's as if everyone knew her yet of course few outside Ysgol Brynhyfryd probably did. I know her mother in passing (and cannot imagine what she's going through) but that's the closest I can get. Irrespective, we all seem to have a stake in the family and in the situation. I think it's because we identify with the idea of such promise now lost. The girl was bright, studying geography, maths and physics at A-level; was a competent swimmer; and was deputy head girl. I guess we can all image what things would be like if this happened to our own children or grand children.
Spare a thought, too, for the other three in the car and the driver and passenger of the second vehicle, all seriously injured. In Miss Alkir's vehicle, where she was in the back, two in the front broke various bones in their lower body. Alongside the dead Miss Alkir, another girl broke her back in three places, plus ribs plus shoulder. Was it that the front seat passengers were wearing belts and those in the rear not?
It would appear from the broken back girl that her driver was on the wrong side of the road when he hit the oncoming vehicle. He'd only passed his practical driving test the day before and it obviously results in everyone jumping to conclusions.
Back to yesterday's victim and if you listen to the conversations it's as if everyone knew her yet of course few outside Ysgol Brynhyfryd probably did. I know her mother in passing (and cannot imagine what she's going through) but that's the closest I can get. Irrespective, we all seem to have a stake in the family and in the situation. I think it's because we identify with the idea of such promise now lost. The girl was bright, studying geography, maths and physics at A-level; was a competent swimmer; and was deputy head girl. I guess we can all image what things would be like if this happened to our own children or grand children.
Spare a thought, too, for the other three in the car and the driver and passenger of the second vehicle, all seriously injured. In Miss Alkir's vehicle, where she was in the back, two in the front broke various bones in their lower body. Alongside the dead Miss Alkir, another girl broke her back in three places, plus ribs plus shoulder. Was it that the front seat passengers were wearing belts and those in the rear not?
It would appear from the broken back girl that her driver was on the wrong side of the road when he hit the oncoming vehicle. He'd only passed his practical driving test the day before and it obviously results in everyone jumping to conclusions.
Tags:
Traffic