Saturday, April 5, 2008

Saturday Morning: Bad News from Pelican Rapids

Pelican Rapids has a place in my heart, from experiences in my boyhood and youth. I remember a park and a dam, with an enormous statue of a pelican. Later, in the sixties, a speech contest brought me to the Pelican Rapids high school: a small labyrinth of hallways and an inexplicably-placed stairway or two.

I know: trivial. But that's what got stamped in my memory.

So, news that someone was killed, and dozens injured, when a bus carrying Pelican Rapids high schoolers back from a Chicago band trip tipped over, was a little more personal than it might have been.

Pelican Rapids PSD 548 seems to be doing a good job, handling things. I noticed right off, that they were mercifully reserving one room for the parents and surviving students, and another for all the people who would be coming.

All that condolencing can be tiring.

The accident has hit the regional news:
"One dead, others injured after Pelican Rapids bus tips on interstate"
In-Forum News (April 5, 2008)
"One dead, at least 40 people hospitalized in rollover bus accident"
KARE11.com (April 5, 2008)

The Minnesota State Patrol website puts this accident in perspective. (I clicked the "Media" button in the lower left corner of the screen, and followed links to get this information.)

The high school tragedy near milepost 202 on westbound I-94 wasn't the only traffic fatality that the State Patrol has dealt with lately.

4/5/2008 5:48 am:
The Pelican Rapids high schooler accident - one dead
4/2/2008 5:12 pm:
Two dead in a collision on Highway 14, near milepost 160
4/1/2008 5:55 am:
Two dead in a rollover on U.S. Highway 52, near milepost 70

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My condolences go out to all the families involved and especially the family that lost their child.

Pelican Cases said...

Wow! I have most definitely read some material on this in the past and just reading the way you wrote it, gives me the chills... I mean, it's pretty intense to be reading this till the end and not thinking about something relevant to this situation... It's quite the shocker if you ask me. I guess things in this world happen for a reason, but most of the time we don't really know what that reason is. But, if you lose something, you lose it for a reason. That reason might be hard to understand, but whatever it is, you just have to believe that G-d takes away when He has something better to give.

Brian H. Gill said...

Josh,

Thank you for that comment.

Well said.

Brian H. Gill said...

Pelican Cases,

Thank you for the comment. I do assume that there is a reason for what happens. But, I've read the book of Job.

One think I got from that is that I don't need to know: and probably couldn't anyway. More on that general topic, at "I Prayed, I Voted: Now We See What Happens," A Catholic Citizen in America (November 4, 2008)).

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