One high school, one island

A Feb. 14-15 BDN article informs us that: “A state panel is studying driving patterns of Mainers in hope of … cutting traffic fatalities.” I suggest the panel could learn from our tragedies on Mount Desert Island.

Six teenagers, all students or recent graduates of Mount Desert Island High School, have died in the last five years in car crashes on or near Mount Desert Island: March 26, 1999, Josh Sprague, 19, killed on the Eagle Lake Road in Bar Harbor; Feb. 27, 2001, Chelsea Ordway, 16, killed on Route 198 in Somesville; May 15, 2001, Kelley Seavey, 17, and Nicole Jacobs, 16, killed on Route 102 in Tremont; May 23, 2003, Clint Chernoski, 16, killed on the Whitney Farm Road in Somesville. Jan. 22, 2004, Jonathan Dow, 19, killed on Route 3 in Trenton.

Their families and friends live with indescribable pain. The trauma from these deaths casts a wide net and has unknown consequences. Island residents are almost numb. Some have a connection to every family whose child has died. They have attended every funeral. They know that these crashes have deprived the world of the gifts these children offered. After all these deaths, what is left to say?

What effect do these deaths have on the surviving students at Mount Desert Island High School? Do they feel that auto accidents happen to others or that death by auto is inevitable, a kind of Russian roulette that all of us must and do play? Do they fear that all their friends are going to die?

What is the effect on parents of teenagers? As the mother of an island teen, I now have empathy for the inner city mother waiting for the dreaded call from the police: “Your child has been shot.” Who will be next? We wring our hands and hope the next crash is not our kid. Some of us engage in a form of denial. We comfort ourselves by thinking that our children are different than the children that have been killed. Our children always fasten their seat belts, always drive the appropriate speed, are more experienced than their peers, never take chances, and are never in a rush. Can we really believe this?

Death by auto remains inevitable until we do something to stop it. Although it is teens that have died, adult decisions result in the combination of circumstances leading to crashes. There are so many things we can do:

1. Fasten our seat belts – every time – and make sure everyone in the

car is fastened in.

2. Drive the speed limit – if conditions warrant – below the speed limit.

3. Keep cars and tires in the best possible condition.

4. Never drive when under the influence of alcohol, over the counter drugs, or when so tired you can’t see straight.

5. Push for lower speed limits and strict enforcement of existing speed limits.

6. Create a semester or a year long driver’s education class at MDIHS.

7. Encourage the development, funding and use of public transportation – for example: a year-round and expanded Island Explorer bus system and a Bangor-MDI bus or light rail system.

8. Work for land-use ordinances and planning board decisions that discourage the “suburbanization” of the island. Subdivisions in traditionally rural areas result in more cars on the road.

9. Repair our local roads – repaint the lines, repair the shoulders. Our roads were not designed for the number or weight of the cars and trucks that are driven on them.

10. Limit the weight and size of trucks that may travel on island roads.

11. Increase the amount of sidewalks and keep them free of snow and ice.

12. Raise the driving age

13. Open up community facilities 24/7, e.g. island school gyms, church halls, libraries, and classroom spaces for drop in programs for island youth to recreate, play basketball, learn new skills, do homework, work out, play floor hockey, hang out. Provide transportation to these facilities so individual cars won’t be necessary.

14. Create tax incentives or other incentive programs to encourage area businesses to find ways for their employees to go to and from work without a private car.

15. Create similar programs to encourage island school children to use existing school buses – instead of tax incentives, perhaps we should pay them to use the public transit that is available.

After assisting at the two crash scenes in 2001, one EMT told me how traumatized he and others were. An island policeman said he had been present at four of the five crashes and knew the families of all the children who died. How horrible these experiences have been for our emergency personnel. How grateful we are that these professionals keep doing their horrific job. How much we wish to relieve them of this burden.

Susan Covino Buell is a resident of Southwest Harbor. She is a member of the MDI Tomorrow subgroups “Youth” and “Transportation.”