Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Sep 2008
- Posts
- 10,120
- Location
- Burscough
For the past two weeks I’ve been completely unable to stop thinking about an incident that happened a couple of weeks ago, close to where my parents live and where I grew up.
Essentially, somebody I knew from school (going back over 15 years now), who wasn’t a friend of mine, but he was in many of my classes, got behind the wheel of his dad’s car a couple of weeks ago, went for a drive, veered off to the wrong side of the road, hit a cyclist, ploughed through a field and came to a stop in somebodies front garden.
Some more facts from the story:
• He’d been in the pub all day drinking;
• He had an argument with his wife as he had been cheating on her;
• After the argument, he got the keys of his dads car and was intending to drive to see his mistress;
• He’s got kids and has been a paramedic for many years;
• He was over the drink drive limit when he had the “accident”;
• The cyclist was killed instantly.
The whole incident is deeply saddening for the cyclists family and I’ve just not been able to shake this from my mind.
I guess my main point is that I do a fair bit of road cycling and I think this is why this story really hit home with me, how fragile life is.
But also how I can’t help but think that this sort of behaviour from that individual was so out of character from what he was like as a kid in school. I’ve got absolutely no sympathy for his situation, what he has done is dreadful and he is currently released under investigation, assuming the police can charge him I'd expect a lengthy sentence, but it really shook me about how life pans out for people, particularly from people you would least expect it from. Just a seemingly ordinary guy, an admirable career, family and kids - just the person you would least expect this from.
Essentially, somebody I knew from school (going back over 15 years now), who wasn’t a friend of mine, but he was in many of my classes, got behind the wheel of his dad’s car a couple of weeks ago, went for a drive, veered off to the wrong side of the road, hit a cyclist, ploughed through a field and came to a stop in somebodies front garden.
Some more facts from the story:
• He’d been in the pub all day drinking;
• He had an argument with his wife as he had been cheating on her;
• After the argument, he got the keys of his dads car and was intending to drive to see his mistress;
• He’s got kids and has been a paramedic for many years;
• He was over the drink drive limit when he had the “accident”;
• The cyclist was killed instantly.
The whole incident is deeply saddening for the cyclists family and I’ve just not been able to shake this from my mind.
I guess my main point is that I do a fair bit of road cycling and I think this is why this story really hit home with me, how fragile life is.
But also how I can’t help but think that this sort of behaviour from that individual was so out of character from what he was like as a kid in school. I’ve got absolutely no sympathy for his situation, what he has done is dreadful and he is currently released under investigation, assuming the police can charge him I'd expect a lengthy sentence, but it really shook me about how life pans out for people, particularly from people you would least expect it from. Just a seemingly ordinary guy, an admirable career, family and kids - just the person you would least expect this from.