Sunday morning I turned on the TV to watch the news and found out about a car accident that had happened in the early hours of Sunday morning on via Petrarca in Naples. The initial shock came from the brutality of the accident. The car had fallen straight down a cliff landing upside down. The second shock were the victims: three 19 year old boys. I listened closely to make sure that it wasn’t anyone that I knew. Despite that I still felt upset and panic. The road that the boys were driving on was a road that I have been on before. It’s a panoramic route, which my friends love to drive on at night. I often feel unsafe in my friends’ cars. They don’t have seat belts in the back, they drive intoxicated, the drive too fast, they drive whilst dancing. I couldn’t help wonder if something like this could have easily happened to me.
A few days have passed since then and I’d kinda forgotten about it all. Today me and my mentor when home with the teacher than I give private lessons too. She had texted me a few times in the last few days cancelling lessons and plans saying that she was having problems at home. We were worried about her so we accompanied her in the car so that she could vent out her stress. The teacher has a son who’s my age and I was fairly sure it was him who was giving her agro. However the reason was completely unexpected. Her son had gone out with his friends Saturday night. He got drunk out of his face and in the end he was taken home by one of his friends. The other three lads stayed at the club. These three lads drove home together and had the accident. Needless to say I’m back in a state of shock. I’m shocked that I’m somehow connected to this death; they aren’t really strangers anymore, but friends of my teacher’s son. I’m even more shocked to know that her son could have ended up as the fourth victim. I don’t know him very well but I see him once a week and we say hello. It all drills into me the loss of life of people my age and how easy it is to die. Sometimes I wonder if I am overly cautious, but seeing the effect this is having on my teacher and her son (who has now fallen into a state of depression, unsurprisingly) I’m really upset and wish the young people of Naples would take better care of themselves.
I know this type of thing doesn’t only happen in Naples, but in England there is the knowledge among young people that drink driving kills. In Naples no, at least not among the people I know. I hope that her son will pull through this and my heart goes out to the family and friends of these boys. I just hope this shock will be enough to teach people my age to think before they get into a car drunk.
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