Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Three Dickinson State University Softball Girls Found Dead

Going to college is supposed to be the time of your life. Somewhere where you really truly find out who you are and what you're going to do with the rest of your life. For three senior softball girls, their live was taken from them a few days ago.

Three seniors who attended Dickinson State University in North Dakota were driving on a Sunday night where they lost control of their vehicle and ended up going into a nearby pond where they drowned. One of the girls tried calling a friend from her cell phone and the girl receiving the phone call could only hear water splashing and screaming. Immediately, she told authorities and the police tracked where the cell phone had placed the call. The girls were found dead the following Tuesday, leaving many families, friends, teammates and others devastated.

This story is totally true. It was on the news this morning as I woke up, and I was also informed via Facebook right after it happened as my friend was one of their teammates. This shows that anything unimaginable can happen.

The message I would like this story to tell is that we should all drive safe. I know it sounds super lame, but I know from personal experience that some of us do try to "show off" around our friends and drive fast, blast the music etc. but I know none of our parents, guardians, family, friends would want to receive that late night phone call from the police. So, drive safe so this doesn't happen to you, please!

12 comments:

Serena said...

Oh yeah, I heard about this too. The authorities are currently investigating whether there was foul play involved or drunk-driving.

This story is devastating and can happen to anyone if you're not careful. I feel really bad for their families and friends.

Unknown said...

The more specific lesson is this. Have a tool for breaking glass in your vehicle. They're easy to use, and much more effective for escaping a flooding vehicle than a cell phone.

Justine Roscoe said...

Wow that is devastating. These story's depress me! We all need to be more careful while driving whether that is not drinking and driving, or just paying more attention to the road. There is too many deaths to teens every year due to car accidents.

Justine Roscoe

Joshua Lu said...

This is very sad to hear about. :[

Jamie made a very good point about having a glass-breaking tool in the car. I never really thought about having a tool for breaking glass in my car, but that sounds like a very good idea. Do you guys know how effective kicking glass is to break it? I see it in movies all the time, but movies are movies.

Emily said...

I cannot imagine how the families and friends are feeling. It is always too late when you regret something you did or something you wish you had the chance to change. It is totally true that as high school students we tend to want to act "cool" but in the end the decisions we make lead to a very tragic ending.So think before you act!

Emily said...

Josh: About kicking the glass..I think it would be hard to kick the glass window of the car (especially under water :/ .. unless you're very very strong :)

I think your best bet would be to have a glass breaking tool like Jamie said. What would you use?
-Emily Niemann

The new Kevin (a.k.a Kevin Kwan) said...

Josh and Emily,

were the girls really trapped in the car?

"One of the girls tried calling a friend from her cell phone and the girl receiving the phone call could only hear water splashing and screaming."

If they are screaming and splashing, it would imply that they are outside of the car.


But in any case, like what everyone has said before, caution must be exercised when driving.

Noelle said...

I don't think they know whether they were stuck in the car or not...I personally know that the cell phone was used to call another player because thats what my friend from the school told me...Investigators are still going through to find out what actually happened.

ArianaR said...

If the girls are screaming and splashing, it doesn't necessarily imply that they are out of the car. The car did fall into the water, and the girls could have had difficulties with their seatbelts or unlocking the doors, especially because they were in a panic.
This is kind of a tangent, but I've read about a lot of deaths that have been caused by seat belt difficulties, which I find to be a bit ironic.

Joshua Lu said...

Kevin: Can't water also flow into the car?

Emily: Yeah, i think it would be pretty hard to break the glass by kicking it too.

Nice point Ariana. I have also heard many stories of people not being able to escape their car due to their seatbelts. Maybe it's also a good idea to keep a pair of scissors in the glove compartment or something? That way you can cut the seat belt if it is causing problems. Do you guys think that would be a good idea?

ArianaR said...

Oddly as it sounds Josh, that is a pretty good idea. And I think that Jamie made a good point too. We never really think about these kinds of situations but obviously anything can happen, so it's always nice to be prepared.

The new Kevin (a.k.a Kevin Kwan) said...

Josh, if water is flowing into the car, then there would be an escape route after the car is flooded. But we'll just have to wait and see what the investigation yields.

Hmm, I like that scissor idea, but you'll probably need a pair of garden shears because seatbelts are not that easy to cut, lol.