BLOOD, NO BRAINS AND NIGHT FLIGHTS: Easton High School Graduation Party Time – This column began in 1988, and the story always is the same.

BLOOD, NO BRAINS AND NIGHT FLIGHTS – This column began in 1988, and the story always is the same.

All True:

Both were good young men.

Both were well-liked.

Both had their lives ahead of them.

Both had been out late, drinking, driving on the back road, and believed they were in control.

One was driving, the other, his best friend, was the passenger.

The driver was wearing a seatbelt; the passenger was not.

The driver lost control, and their ride left the back road at about 4:30 am and flipped several times.

The passenger was ejected in the spiraling path taken by the speeding vehicle and suffered life-ending injuries and was flown to the incredible shock trauma center in Baltimore, where miracles are sometimes arranged. There is nothing that can comfort the family, although friends and solemn-faced acquaintances of the passenger make valiant efforts.

The stark reality is that the multiple flips of the speeding vehicle piloted by the intoxicated driver have determined the destiny of the passenger who bought a ticket to his own funeral when he decided to ride with his impaired pal.

Alternatives in the hallways of the trauma center rise and fall quickly as the inevitable looms, and just twenty-four hours later, the passenger was declared deceased.

The driver will soon face manslaughter by motor vehicle while intoxicated charges. His stunned family will quickly obtain a line of credit on their home to hire the very best criminal defense attorney in town, but will soon learn that it is likely that the local Talbot County criminal defense attorney will have conflicts and refer the driver’s family to attorneys in Anne Arundel County. With a possible ten-year prison sentence, the driver needs a highly skilled attorney.

The passenger’s family now lives in total devastation. Nothing they had faced before prepared them for this dark time. Bright and sweet memories of a son raised to adulthood, with all plans for a future of achievement, adventure, and happiness now dashed, small things to hold dear have utterly indescribable significance.

Meeting with the undertaker and walking into the room of various coffins on display to choose the right one is overwhelming.  The final furniture choices are laid out with taste as the funeral director’s low, soothing voice points out various advantages and features. At the same time, the family continues to walk around in a state of shock.  Cremation is an alternative with a small box to enclose the remains of a life unlived.

It will be a relief to return to the quiet funeral home office and discuss times, religious services, flower sprays, and whether there is a lot near grandpa’s grave.  Whoever thought the newly deceased passenger would need a small piece of real estate when the summer plans before the first semester of college were front and center in the minds of the family, until two nights ago. The passenger will soon make a final trip on Ocean Gateway to be with his grandfather in a neat cemetery just off the highway. A long funeral procession will likely include buses with sports teams from Easton High School mixed with the dark funeral vehicles, as respectful traffic pulls to the shoulder of the road in both directions until the procession completes its journey of taking the passenger to his final destination.  Some will see the Angel accepting the passenger’s soul into its arms for the glorious rise to Heaven, as Grandpa soars with them.

The adventures to Ocean City that were planned all now belong to others. Conversations about his life and the horrible crash will wander onto other topics, but for many close friends, they will carry the memory of the passenger in their hearts for much of their lives.

The meeting with the attorney on the western shore is blunt, factual, and costly. A retainer of a year’s salary for one of the driver’s parents will get them started, and the total may easily run into three times that amount. Money saved for college will likely be spent to minimize the driver’s prison time.  The BAC tests performed on the driver, who suffered no injuries, along with the accident reconstruction reports, won’t leave too much for the skillful defense attorney to work with.

The cohesive atmosphere of friends will soon splinter as many go off to college and talk about this senseless tragedy, and perhaps inspire a few of them to make better decisions regarding drinking and driving in their futures.  Others will choose sides, but really, there is only one side.

Having deputies as school resource officers in the schools, many presentations on impaired driving, and lots of parental support have gone a long way in making this the first such fatality in the current graduation season.

Many times, people will talk about the tragedy of two destroyed lives. True, but only one life ended, and the other isn’t destroyed, but certainly altered.

The parents of both the driver and passenger will search their memories for what they could have done differently to prevent the night’s carnage. Truthfully, nothing they could have done would have prevented two good kids from making a stupid and deadly mistake. Their sons had judgment, free will, and opportunity. Both made the same mistake of mixing alcohol and driving, and both paid dearly, one with his life and the other with his future.