Comments on: 5 Teenagers were Killed in a Car Crash after Attempting to Speed up a Train

By: J. Hindman

J. Hindman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:55:20 +0000

Such a horrible loss. I don’t want to judge, but if this driver’s family knew his license was suspended, why did he have the car? Being stopped by police for speeding and running a stop sign IS a sign of reckless disregard in driving…. I have two sons, and one was a speed demon. Sometimes, a parent has to take the keys. Maybe some other parent will do so.
My prayers go to the families, that somehow, they will find some peace in this terrible loss.

By: ValerieM

ValerieM — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:47:23 +0000

May God give these families strength

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:45:02 +0000

I remember first reading the article and my first impression was “how horrible!” but then I re-read it and there was something I didn’t notice before. The daughter had asked to go to the beach AFTER spending the night at a friends house without calling her parents, then when her mom said no to come straight home she said she would AFTER she got some food. Let me tell you something, I could have never said that to my parents because to that they would say “NO NOW!!!! there is food here, now I expect you in the door no less than 20 minutes or you are grounded for a month!” I feel horrible that the kids died, but this girl obviously had no respect for her parents and thought she knew best. I wish she didn’t have to die so she could have learned from this, but she paid the consequence of her careless actions with her life. I’m sorry but there is no way in hell my kids would be able to spend the night at someone’s house without my permission because I would be at all her friends house door to door looking for her. What a waste of lives.

By: Valerie m

Valerie m — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:35:33 +0000

My children were friends with all of the victims of this horrible tragedy , I knew three of them personaly. Jessica and Eddie went to school with my daughter for years and also attended birthday parties and such events, Jessica and my daughter liked to hang out at the local mall and regular teenage stuff . Dan Broughton, the driver of the car and Sean Harris also attended and graduated from the the same school as Eddie And Jessica. Sean and Dan were good friends with My three sons. Sean lived two blocks up from one of my sons and they would see eachother almost on a daily basis..So when I heard of this Train / car accident and I realized that at least one of the victims were from Taylor Michigan (my Town) I was so saddened and hoped it was not someone we knew , My daughter and I watched the news when they showed a picture of Jessica, my daughter started to panic and said that looks just like Jessica Saddler, please dont let that be Jessica, the news also reported that she was killed along with her boyfriend and three other teens , my daughter knew the other victims immediately, who at this point remained unidentified on the news till next of kin were notified. I guess Jessica and Eddie were inseparable and The other victims were the best of friends so people started to assume who the other victims were and kind of held out hope that the rumors were just that . we all waited util the 11 pm news to confirm the others identies. and we were so shocked, a wave of sadness overcame all of us. we knew all of them. My family attended all of the funerals , I have never witnesed so much pain, Dan’s (the driver) Mother, was in agony, she kind of leaned on the arm of the couch in the funeral home with her eyes closed, tears streaming down her face ,in front of her was the open casket with her son inside of it. Dan’s father looked blank and in a daze. Eddie also had an open casket, he didnt even look real, they had him laying where you could not see his right side and he had netting over his casket. His family was crushed, barely able to breathe. Jessica had a closed casket, it was white with pink roses on it, I guess they had a special viewing for her closest friends to see if they should keep her casket open , shocked, they all agreed to close it because she didnt look at all like herself , her family was in agony ,they looked so lost because she was so young and the 3rd of 8 siblings. Sean and Terrance Harris were brothers …I cant even begin to imagine burying one of my children let alone two. Sean and Terrance took the brunt of the crash and of course they couldn’t have an open casket. the family were devestated and in disbelief, could you imagine not being able to look at your children for the last time to say goodby. Terrance had just come to Michigan from Virginia to visit his family two days before the crash . I guess Dan had his license suspended the day before the crash because of an unpaid trafic ticket for not having his license on his person. all I can say is that these kids were always together in life and they Loved eachother, Dan was young and careless and made a huge mistake, he took the lives of his best friends and died along with them. he made the stupid decision to drive with his license suspended and they all paid the horrible price , I wonder if they knew that his license was suspended or if it would of mattered to any of them. Would they have still gotten into the car with him? I saw the video of the crash on the news , It was so fast, violent and direct that they had to of died instantly, at least I hope so. I bet that they didnt even know what was happening. I hope not. I really think this horrible tragedy has taught an expensive lesson , an expensive loss of beloved children that could never be replaced . so sad , so surreal, as I looked around the funerals at the young friends of these victims , I couldn’t help but wonder if they realized just how tragic and final this was. Anyway, after all of this, I pray that these families can survive this.

By: Angie

Angie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:11:37 +0000

The next greatest tragedy to this accident is the authorship of this article. I’m hoping that some kind of transcription program was used that fractured any semblance of good grammar or english. In this day of vanity plates, text messaging, IMing good english is still just that. Social acceptability does not change anything…anything!

By: ajax

ajax — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:54:34 +0000

If there wasn’t alcohol or drugs involved then it was suicide and taking company with him