Hitting Close to Home

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Like most people, I was saddened and horrified at the news of the bus crash in Canada on Friday. A semi T-boned the chartered bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team, killing 15 people. I can't even begin to tell you how close to home that hits with me, even though the tragedy happened 1,600 miles from where I live. I travel a lot. My first Honda Civic had 186,000 miles on it when I got rid of it. Because my dad was sick I "only" have 13,000 on the current car (that I've had for nine months). You have probably read my stories of concerts, road trips, and Putt Putt tournaments. It's nothing new: I road tripped for the BoDeans in the 80s and my friends the Whitstein Brothers in the 90s (I took a decade off from 1997-2007 when my mom got sick). Plus, when I was in the Navy there were road trips, drives home on leave, and a cross-country trek that began at NAS Norfolk, Virginia and ended at the Navy Pier in Long Beach, California. In short, I have driven a mile or two. I would estimate at least 750,000 miles, if I remember my final odometer readings correctly. In all of that time, I've had one wreck on the road (Lynchburg, Virginia, 1991) resulting in no injuries and a busted side window. I had one injury to myself, the broken ankle when I fell in snow and ice in Chicago in 2015. Other than that, I've gone out and come back with nothing but happy memories. God has been very good to me in my travels, to say the least. I've seen accidents and been stuck in the traffic jams resulting (including a fatal on I-71 when I was returning from a golf tournament), but the cars and I have returned unscathed (save for the aforementioned issues). And then you read about something like this. Every time I go to Cincinnati I pass the sign marking the site of the 1988 Carrollton bus crash, which still stands (and may it never be eclipsed) as the worst drunk-driving accident in U.S. history. On that May evening a pick-up going the wrong way slammed into a bus load of kids on an outing to King's Island from a nearby town's church. That took 27 lives. Every safe trip is precious to me. Tragedies like this make them more precious. May God comfort the families, friends, neighbors, and all of us affected by this tragedy.