Spend An Extra Buck, Save A Life

Spend An Extra Buck, Save A Life - A belated welcome back to my blog after weeks of basically no internet connection! - OMG, what an absolutely senseless tragedy that was on October, 6th in the Upstate NY town of Schoharie! Having been visiting with my family in Austria at that very time, it would take a while for the horrific news to finally reach us there as well. First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences to the many bereaved. May you all eventually find some peace and solace in the worldwide joint grief. This being the worst car fatality in years on American soil, I just can't get over it at how such could ever happen, much less on a scale like that. Originally coming from Europe, I grew up in an overall tightly regulated system. Not that accidents of that kind are entirely avoidable this way, - totally unrealistic and wishful thinking, at best - however, being used to rather strict rules and regulations in basically all areas of life, I can honestly only shake my head at that particular operational degree of executed recklessness and carelessness in this sad case. If I am not mistaken, that jolly bunch of party folks, all in their mid- thirties, had initially chartered a bus to safely get the 17 of them from point A to B. Nothing wrong with that up to that awful twist of fate with precisely that designated means of transport unexpectedly breaking down. May I interject right here and pose the bold question, why the hell, there had quite apparently been done such insufficient maintenance on that bus? Why is it that each and every single school bus in the State of New York is strictly checked on a daily base before they leave their terminals, whereas other buses seem to be falling through the crack control- wise? Not enough, though, there's just another inexplicable circumstance that irks the crap out of me in this specific context. Wouldn't it be considered general common sense to acquire a state license as a professional driver of any public and private transport service alike? Quite obviously, such is actually far too much to ask. How indescribably unfortunate and saddening this is as 20 lives could easily have been spared and saved from their untimely deaths. Alright, just because that bus proved to be out of commission for that Saturday, the destined group, most of whom were married and parents of small children, was adamant to continue their fun trip celebrating the occasion of one couple's very recent wedding. Thus, the newly- weds, three sisters with their spouses, plus another nine friends opted to rent a cheap limo- service instead. Exactly at that point, though, their destiny was collectively sealed. In the following, the owner provided them with a shabby makeshift version of a limo- converted vehicle which was way beyond legal and logically not registered. What's more, it was completely unfit to carry that many passengers. A total of eight grown- ups is usually allowed per limo. Anything above that is a severe hazard in terms of weight and with that of breaking ability, of course. Anyway, that particular road which the driver was on that fateful day, is locally commonly known as a fairly steep one. Hence, as he was coming down and approaching that tricky intersection with "Apple Barrel" located at its foot, his brakes ultimately gave out simply because they were overwhelmed due to the by far over- exceeded weight limit. Those 17 people that were cramped in that now unstoppable missile had no survival chance whatsoever. The driver downright plowed into two leaving guests in the parking lot before it crashed into a ditch where it ended up so violently mangled that both onlookers and late arriving first- aid units were left with scarring impressions comparable to a bloody battlefield. According to the horrific accounts of two morticians who my husband ran into only a couple of days later, most fatalities were based on severed heads as well as other body parts. I honestly feel at a loss for words to express my profound sadness over the senseless loss of 20 lives as well as the deeply- seated bewilderment regarding that unfathomable degree of ruthlessness only to save and make a few more bucks, respectively. All over $500. Was it worth it? By no means, I would say.