Andrew J. Asmus (driver who wrecklessly ran stop sign across major highway...injured, but hospitalized and still alive...he was on the opposite side of the impact.)
Benjamin J. Gray (deceased passenger in Andrew Asmus's car...he took the full brunt of the impact of the oncoming vehicle...he paid the highest price for Andrew Asmus's stupidity.)
Cory W. Roush (injured and hospitalized passenger in Andrew Asmus's car.) Innocent passenger in the car of an idiot.
Unpictured
Daniel C. Shute, 49, Braymer. Also injured and hospitalized because Andrew Asmus chose to ignore a stop sign.
Mr. Shute was simply driving along the highway at highway speeds, rounding a blind, downhill corner where crossroads (like Route JJ) had stop signs posted to prevent accidents. He will no doubt feel (for the rest of his life) the guilt that should be shouldered by Andrew Asmus.
From
"The Excelsior Springs Standard Online
By ERIC COPELAND
Managing Editor
A two-vehicle accident on Missouri 210 Friday afternoon left one teenager dead, two of his friends badly hurt and a fourth person also seriously injured.
Benjamin J. Gray, 17, Missouri City, was a passenger in a 1994 Ford driven by Andrew J. Asmus, 17, Excelsior Springs.
According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, the two teenagers and a friend, 17-year-old Cory W. Roush, also of Missouri City, were southbound on Route JJ at 3:35 p.m. Friday when they failed to stop at the stop sign at Missouri 210. The vehicle crossed into the path of an eastbound 2004 Dodge driven by Daniel C. Shute, 49, Braymer, and the two collided and traveled off the southeast corner of the intersection."
This is the intersection in question.
Stop signs are clearly posted.
Along a minor county road crossing a major state highway.
I know there are several families who are hurting because of this tragic accident.
But my daughter just turned 14 and is chomping at the bit to drive.
It is idiots like this who scare the living shit out of me.
My daughter could be the best, most responsible and cautious driver in the world.
And all it would take is one stop-sign-running bastard like this to kill her dead.
I told my daughter, if you never, ever learn anything else from me, remember this one single thing..."People are STUPID!"
The second lesson I imparted was that 100% of traffic accidents and fatalities can be attributed to somebody doing something stupid.
Like ignoring a stop sign and crossing a highway in oncoming traffic.
This senseless accident (and the resulting fatality) could have easily been avoided by drivers just paying attention and obeying the law.
This isn't rocket science.
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15 comments:
This one gives me chills - I'll explain in painful detail why.
There's a section of road north of town called "the diagonal" that seems to attract death like catfish bait attracts flies.
A good friend of mine - a lineman for an electric cooperative - hit a car with his utility truck and killed the couple who'd pulled in to his path.
A few weeks back, at the same intersection, we had a car pull out in front of an ambulance - with lights and sirens engaged. Four people dead.
Last night, as we drove to an out-of-town soccer match some 50 miles up the diagonal, we talked about how crazy it was that people would find themselves in such violent accidents on a road with such good visibility. As we approached the cursed intersection a pickup truck turned in front of me as I barreled along at 70 mph and I nearly clipped him; barely swerving to miss.
Fucked me up for a few minutes but the feeling passed until I read your post. Thanks for that brother.
It's articles like this that make me think it's ok not to have children -- as you said XO you let the kids out and they are on their own -- there will be and have always been idiots on the road -- but I think there's a lot of room for parents and schools to more adequately bring the realities of stories like this to their kids.
These kind of reminders should be everywhere.
Car accidents have been more personal to me than to probably many people. In 93 I was rear ended on the freeway, 8 months later in 94 a woman made an illegal left turn in front of me while I was going 50 mph, we hit head on. Fucked up my car and my right leg. In May 2001 a dumbass ran a red light and t-boned my husband in his truck with his mom. His mom is now a quadripeligic who suffers from constant infections and bed sores who needs continual care from the family. My husband's left shoulder is covered in scars from road rash and glass.
I am reminded every day how simple stupidity affects people for the rest of their lives.
When I was in college I rear ended my then-girlfriend in a parking lot in Lawrence (I think she secretly liked it).
Never assume that the people on the road near you know what they're doing. Assume they're going to blow through that stop sign (happened to me yesterday); assume that horse trailer is turning too close to you (happened to me last week and you couldn't pass a match between us). Defensive driving skills ought to be mandatory in order to pass a driver's license road test.
I hate shit like this. People are so self-obsessed and they drive like no one else matters.
Just one more reason I'm against the car-dependent lifestyle. You'll never kill someone by bumping into them with your bike or walking into them.
Yes, but it's also a bit tough to walk or bike down highway 250, May. I dare ya to try it.
I'm gonna be the devil's advocate on this one...what if there was something wrong with Asmus's (really? Really.) car, and perhaps the brakes weren't working properly, or what have you? know it's highly unlikely, and even still would be his fault for not getting it taken care of, but it's a possibility.
When I was 16 or 17, I had a boyfriend that rear-ended the car in front of us on the freeway when we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We were all too close together, and apparently his brakes were suddenly behaving wacky. Fortunately, the two cars in front of us (we pushed the car in front of us into the car in front of them, and they barely bumped the next car up, but there wasn't any damage...) had family members in them - we were on our way to a football game for our high school. But it sucked all the same. He said that he hadn't had any problems with the brakes on that car before that point. I can't be positive he was telling the truth, but I was inclined to believe him at the time...he was Mormon! Good Mormon kids never lie, right?
Anyway, tragedy all the same. I'm sure it was the kid's fault, I just immediately thought that perhas it was a problem with his car that caused it...don't know why.
I realize this is off topic but I just have to say that a man who can use the words 'biostratigraphy' and 'clade' IN THE SAME SENTENCE APPROPRIATELY is very.. very sexy.
On the traffic thing: in 1991 I was broadsided right on the driver's side door by an old lady in a Chrysler New Yorker doing about 45 in a 20. I was in a VW Fox. Had I been wearing my seat belt I would have ended up with extensive injuries to my left arm, hip and probably the whole left side of my ribcage would have been busted. Fortunately, I wasn't, and so I bounced from my side of the car to the other and back, putting my head through the driver's side window, thus giving myself a closed-head-injury and a fractured orbit, which wasn't good but at least I was ambulatory.
It could have been a lot worse.
All it takes is just one second and one wrong decision. I don't think people actually realize this, that the seemingly insignificant decision you make can cost your own life or someone else's.
And you're right, it doesn't matter how good of a driver you are if the person in the next car is an asshole.
And it's a damn shame.
All it
As a parent, I confess I probably wouldn't be that comforted by what Im about to tell you, but as a grown daughter, I feel compelled to share. My dad DRILLED it into my head when he taught me to drive that a person could be "dead right". He taught me to drive defensively. By nature Im very distractible XO, but his lessons saved my life many times over in terms of avoiding accidents that would not have been my fault. She will listen to you when you teach her. And twenty years from now she will still drive that way.
btw streetview is excellent in adding context to this situation XO.
Many of us have lost friends in high school because of this type of stupidity. I have.
And as I think about this I'm conflicted - if this Asmus kid really connects with the tragedy he has caused, he will will have a living hell -- without a day going by that he doesn't think about the person he has killed by his literal hand.
That would be exact affect it would have on me, and it is hard for me to wish that on anybody.
so sad
Kids these days need to concentrate on driving, not talking on their cell phones or texting their friends.
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