Highway death
A little more than two months ago, I wrote about how a fatal traffic collision referenced on the California Highway Patrol's traffic Web site jarred me. It's happened again, but this time I'm even more stunned because I knew the girl who died and I traveled the section of road on which she died only a few days earlier.Courtney Barton was about four years behind me in school, one grade ahead of my sister. Her cousin, with whom she lived, was a grade ahead of me. In an elementary school of 100 students between Kindergarten and eighth grade, the grade differences weren't as obvious. She came from a family where the mothers tended to get pregnant at a very young age, and many of them lived in a trailer with the grandmother. I don't mean to speak badly of the family, but that's just how it was.
According to that article, Courtney apparently managed to break out of the mold. Being president of an honor society, college class president and a firefighter is not something I would have equated with the family. Courtney was apparently doing well for herself. She even got a full-ride two-year scholarship to get her bachelor's degree, paid for by the same foundation that gave me my scholarship.
The accident that killed her was another one I saw on the CHP site. I'd just traveled that winding highway, so I knew exactly where she careened around a curve and went over the embankment. At the time, reports were coming in that the driver (Courtney) was speeding and driving recklessly -- something you just can't do on that part of the road. I don't know how fast she was driving, and I don't know what else was involved. One thing that strikes me, though, is that the firefighter and future nurse was wearing her seat belt.
Posted by Layla at 10:06 PM, September 15, 2004
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