[notfarnow]

Well, I wasn't rich but I still almost managed to kill myself and 3 friends when I was 16. Driving too fast (because I was an EXPERT driver, I'd been reading Road & Track since I was 13, you know), with a car full of people on a road I didn't know. Went off the road at 70mph and wedged right between two trees. Car was toast, one guy peed his pants (no kidding), but other than that, no injuries.

The image of that old Taurus, stuck between two big maple trees, is etched in my memory.

So I try to reserve judgement when I read stories like this. It's got nothing to do with class, or money, or even the car they were driving. It has to do with maturity, hormones, and luck.

It is very, very sad.