[cegerer]

I got one of those dreaded early-morning phone calls while out of town this weekend. A good friend of mine - 41 years old - was killed in a car accident. What makes this even more difficult to deal with is he was 'one of us'. A car guy. He knew how to drive. And how to drive well. Some years ago, he owned and raced his own SCCA rally car for christ's sake. He had a brand new Audi Quattro Coupe street car - back around 1982 when Quattro's were the latest rage and were winning all the FIA rallies - and I can remember some wild rides in that monster. He was a VW/Audi guy mainly but had a WRX and then sold that recently and bought a VW R32.

As the details have emerged, he rear-ended a flat bed truck stopped on the expressway for an accident further up the road. His car rolled several times and he was killed instantly. He was an aggressive driver and perhaps had not matured completely in that regard. In fact, the last time I saw him I was walking my dog and heard this car accelerating quickly down this winding road that comes out of a golf resort across from my house. I looked up and there he was in his brand new R32 with a big grin on his face ..... But whether that was a factor is only speculation on my part and maybe comes from a desire to somehow justify what happened. Nobody will ever know what happened. Did he momentarily take his eyes off the road only to find traffic unexpectedly stopped? The condition of the car indicates a high speed impact.

But last night we learned something that nobody who knew him can believe - he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He's the same type of guy as all of us. He's into driving cars and seatbelts are simply not something one chooses to wear part of the time. But a video on the news today showed body bags on both sides of the wrecked R32 .....

He was a local high school hockey coach for many years. He leaves his wife and 2 young daughters behind. I can't imagine how they'll deal with it.