How many of our decisions affect
others? Choosing to have a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich over tuna fish may not have any kind of a ripple effect as
making a choice to drive or walk toward oncoming traffic.
Yesterday morning Balras Sing Dhillon
had stopped his car just outside of Myrtle Creek. Whether it was a conscience decision or not
is unknown.
Police received a call about a
vehicle stopped in the northbound left lane of the interstate approximately six
in the morning and went to investigate. When they approached the vehicle, the
driver took off.
The driver continued for another
mile before crashing into the medium. He
must have climbed over the medium after he abandoned his car. Was he running from the police? Was he so disoriented that he didn’t know
what he was doing? I believe the latter
as it is said he ran onto the freeway and was struck by multiple cars that were
going southbound. Just before he died
several people were affected by the decisions he had made.
Drivers between Exits 119 and 113
had nowhere to go. They were stuck in
traffic – lives were changed. I do not
know how many jobs were affected. I know
there were schools that were missing a number of instructors for one to three
hours (depending on what time each school started).
The decision made created lost time –
not only for the teachers but their students as well. In one school the students of the absent
instructors were required to go to the gym.
There they were given the choice to participate in physical activity or
watch from the bleachers. It was
suggested they do homework or study – which many were obviously not doing as
they surfed on cell phones or visited.
It was a weird day for
everyone. Instructors. Students.
Aides. Other community members
who had been called to assist until the instructors arrived.
Often the decisions we make –
whether consciously or not – affect others. The driver was a 35-year-old man from
Lincoln, California. We don’t know what
brought him to Oregon. That is what the media
said. The fatal accident is still under
investigation as so much is unknown.
I am reminded of another incident
also involving a car. The driver had not
taken his medication and was not supposed to be driving. He wasn’t in his right mind when he made his
decisions. He drove onto the sidewalk
and hit some students who were walking along 4000 West as they were returning home
from Kearns Junior High. Some media
indicated there were seven students.
Other said five.
I don’t recall the year it
happened. But I remember seeing the emergency
lights spinning in the dark. The road
had been closed for more than 24 hours.
All the students involved had been taken to the hospital. None of them were kept overnight as I recall.
I don’t know what emotional scars were created or how long they lasted.
The one thing about Utah is there
are alternatives. There are back roads
and exits that will still allow one to go in all four directions. Here, in Oregon, there are not a lot of back
roads or options. We may think our
decisions might not matter – but they do.