NE - 4 Teenage Girls Die in Fiery Single Vehicle Automobile Crash, 5th Burned, Gretna, 17 June 2019

[MommyStephV]

I don’t know how much I can say without breaking TOS, so mods please delete, but I believe her mom is an attorney. I’m guessing that factored into the families decision to hire an attorney.

I have many mutual friends with several of the girls’ parents. I have kids of my own who will be driving in a few short years. This stuff terrifies me to no end.

There’s a Facebook post, and I think it’s probably ok to hint at searching for it because it’s really got nothing to do with the crash or any of the details, but it really hit home for me. The main point of it was “I was these girls...” written by a female who is about my age. It hit so close to home because I too was these girls, just like so many others. Out having fun with my friends, on summer break, windows down, music blaring and singing along, not a care in the world. At that age, you feel invincible.

Gosh, it just breaks my heart. Knowing that 4 girls made decisions that cost their life. The adolescent brain isn’t developed fully yet, they can’t and don’t make reasonable choices no matter how much and what they are taught. These girls came from GREAT families, I’m fairly certain their parents knew who they were with. This isn’t a case of teens out causing problems. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE. I’m just rambling, but I think you get my point. I hope from this tragedy comes something good, I hope it drives home the message of how dangerous drinking and driving is, the message of how dangerous reckless driving is, and the message that you aren’t invincible.

 

[Hatfield]

Oh no! Makes my heart hurt for those families

Me too. Im so sad for all the families affected by this terrible accident.

Read back and most people have already touched on the points I would like to share. In the event it helps anyone who has kids or will shortly have kids I just want to share a couple things.

The only accidents I ever had so far, knock on wood , is when I was 16 thru 18. I was a passenger in one horrific rollover crash where luckily nobody was hurt too badly. The other main accident was at 16 where I was driving and made a poor decision to go through the yellow to beat the red light and the traffic in front took too long to clear the intersection so even though I made the yellow light, by the time I cleared the intersection the oncoming traffic saw their green light and obviously didnt see me in the middle of the intersection where I was T-boned. Again luckily no serious injuries.

Point being that at that age 16-18 I knew I could drive reasonably well because it does not take long for young drivers to get the hang of it, but what we dont understand at that young age is we really are not prepared for all the "special traffic situations" that are abnormal. Things like people pulling out in front of you. Things like other cars stopping unexpectedly or construction zones that take you through cones. All kinds of strange traffic situations come up and the only way to get that experience in how to handle is it takes time and at least a couple years before you begin to acquire automatic and safe responses to those traffic situations.

Being honest with myself in hindsight, I think it took me 2 whole years of driving before I was finally considered a "normal expereinced driver". I may have thought I was good enough after getting my license but in no way shape or form was I prepared for all the traffic situations that I ended up learning in the next 2 years after my license.

So I guess the helpful point I am trying to make is we are most vulnerable for accidents in those first couple years after we get our license and especially vulnerable the first 6 months to a year. We all have to get that experience so all we can do is to try to teach our children to recognize that it will take them about 2 years to be really comfortable for all the crazy traffic situations that are coming their way and to prepare them as best as possible to make sure they follow safe and defensive driving habits.

The biggest tip I can offer young drivers to stay safe is to drive slow enough to be able to react to whatever traffic situation happens around you. Slow speeds allow you to react.

We all make mistakes and unfortunately this mistake was very costly. Sincere prayers for all the families and friends involved.

 

[10ofRods]

Getting driving laws changed isn’t going to help if people are willing to break the law. And teens are convinced they’re invincible and nothing will happen to them. I’ve read about so, so many deadly crashes over the years that involve teen drivers with passengers that technically shouldn’t have been riding with them by law.

I’m sure these girls were just hanging out, having fun and trying not to be bored on a summer night. I wish they’d made it safely home.

But not everyone is willing to break the law. As a parent in California, the law was very useful for insisting on rules of driving. Yes, my kids occasionally broke those laws, but they were very very aware they could be pulled over and therefore took only the shortest routes and did it very rarely. When I found out about it, naturally they lost driving privileges for quite some time.

No way to totally stop deadly crashes but I do believe that, in my county at least, we have way fewer teen deaths. There used to be so many every June, around graduation time.

 

[musicaljoke]

Getting driving laws changed isn’t going to help if people are willing to break the law. And teens are convinced they’re invincible and nothing will happen to them. I’ve read about so, so many deadly crashes over the years that involve teen drivers with passengers that technically shouldn’t have been riding with them by law.
...

Changing the law is important in that it normalizes expected driving behavior. If the NE law had been such that no one is permitted to drive with an under aged person until they are properly licensed at 19, with zero demerit points, and zero blood alcohol level, as is the law in many places in the world, then I believe that this sad crash may have been prevented.

There would have been conversations about who was going where, and with what vehicle, and who was driving. Parents would likely have been involved and more likely aware of who had the car or what arrangements had been made for getting their kids home.

From what I read in the NE driving regulations, a 16 yr old can be fully licensed after 6 months, without even taking a written or driving test. NE has the slackest licensing requirements that I have seen anywhere.

I agree with you that some teens will still end up in a fatal crash because they broke the laws, but imo, systemic change in NE's regulations can raise the driving standard and help keep the statistics down.

Provisional Operator’s Permit (POP) | Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles

 

[Snick1946]

Sarpy County officials identify 4 victims in Gretna crash along with survivor

Press conference today; they have 'persons of interest' under investigation in giving the kids alcohol.

A TV story this evening on local TV indicated authorities are running into barriers from the families of kids they want to interview.

I have a few suspicions that I'm not posting.

 

[Snick1946]

I didn't think it wold be OK to post a link to a discussion on Redditt about this but one rumor is that it has been very common in this community for parents to host parties involving alcohol to underage kids. The county sheriff seems to indicate they are running into a brick wall getting ANY cooperation out of parents of any of the girls including the survivor and from the community in general. Incredible.

 

[PrairieWind]

Well that is interesting, though maybe not surprising. I had not previously heard that the girls had been drinking, but it doesn't surprise me I guess.

 

[Snick1946]

The Sheriff's department will in time find out how they got the alcohol. A reward has been posted, if I lived in Gretna I'd be embarrassed that someone had to do that to get to the truth.

 

[Snick1946]

All the lawyering up might be taking a toll on reporting on this. I attempted to post a comment on the FB page of a local TV outlet and couldn't do it, they probably have blocked comments. Same thing on the Reddit discussion. The last may have been a glitch but I wonder..

 

[Hap]

Honestly, when I was a teen we all did this. Heartbroken for these families, but not sure what is gained from charging anyone. The girls made the choice, just as we did back in the day.

 

[CCmakes3]

Honestly, when I was a teen we all did this. Heartbroken for these families, but not sure what is gained from charging anyone. The girls made the choice, just as we did back in the day.

I understand your line of thinking. I too drank as a teenager. There were any number of pervy older guys who were more than willing to buy it for us. But we have to distinguish between the girls' poor choices as juveniles and the totally separate and distinct illegal behavior of an adult giving alcohol to a child. If the girls snuck it or stole it, then I agree that no one should be charged, but if an adult knowingly provided them booze, that is a crime in Nebraska, regardless of whether the girls would have gotten it some other way or not. The reason why underage drinking is illegal (and buying booze for minors is a crime) is because teens don't have the frontal lobe development to make mature decisions and weigh consequences when it comes to alcohol. Just because they probably would've gotten it from somebody else doesn't mean that LE should ignore a law that exists to protect children. Who are we to say that the person who provided the alcohol has "suffered enough?" If the law is on the books, I think it should be up to the courts to make that decision. There have been numerous incidents of this in the Omaha suburbs over the past 5 years, and they all have received extensive publicity in the media. If people still don't know it's illegal to give kids booze, perhaps LE does need to keep making examples of these individuals. If people know they could go to jail for doing it, they might decide it's not worth it. Sorry if I sound like a prude! I just happen to feel like even small obstacles to teen drinking can make a difference.

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

The Sheriff's department will in time find out how they got the alcohol. A reward has been posted, if I lived in Gretna I'd be embarrassed that someone had to do that to get to the truth.

Thanks for the updates Snick! This is such a sad case & hard to digest the fact that all the parents are clamming up. Nobody wants to be outed for supplying the alcohol but dang, I would never forgive myself for being a part of allowing these young kids to drink & drive if this is the case. The guilt would consume and wear me down emotionally. No way could I ever live with it.

O/T Snick - I seem to recall that you followed/contributed a lot to the Tom Hunter/Shirlee Sherman thread back in the day. What a roller coaster ride that one was! Anyway I was so thankful that I could follow the breaks in the cold case here - who would have seen that coming? Who in their right mind stabs an 11 year old & the family’s housekeeper in the middle of the day, plus 2 other innocents.....all for the revenge of being fired? Anyway, thanks for all your contributions here!

 

[Snick1946]

Blondie, yes that was me. I don't often post on here now but this story was a little close to home for me. Yeah the Dundee case was a real humdinger, I think the discussion on here ran to several threads. I think we at least helped nudge the cops into cooperation with the Americas Most Wanted producers which eventually led to a break in the case. I spent four years posting on that.

I just don't know what to think on this one. I just find it incredible that adults in a community would circle wagons like this to protect people who provide booze to 15-16 year old kids. I alluded to a thread on Reddit Omaha about this, not linking to it because I think it's not allowed but anyone can go looking for it.There are some posts on there from people who apparently live in Gretna talking about 'snitching' also one comment that everybody in town knows the real story and are all looking at each other to report the guilty parties. I'm not sure about the legal stuff here but if this continues I'd like to hope the authorities can pry things loose. Gretna must be one of those little towns with a lot of secrets to hide.

 

[Snick1946]

Chief deputy: Gretna community that opened arms to families after fatal crash closes ranks on investigators

This is a link to a story in the Lincoln paper. If you scroll to the bottom and click on the comments link you get a feel for some of the local public opinion. Some of these folks think it needs to be 'let go.'

 

[MyBelle]

Chief deputy: Gretna community that opened arms to families after fatal crash closes ranks on investigators

This is a link to a story in the Lincoln paper. If you scroll to the bottom and click on the comments link you get a feel for some of the local public opinion. Some of these folks think it needs to be 'let go.'

The reward was up to $14,000 earlier today. "Letting it go" isn't what the parents of the dead teens want and I don't blame them.

Last year a teen in a nearby school district also was killed in a car crash and the supplier of his alcohol is being prosecuted. Ignoring the problem is the worst thing authorities can do.

JMO

Clerk, 2 minors arrested connected to Elkhorn student's deadly crash

Reward for information related to fatal Gretna crash increases to $14,000

 

[MyBelle]

Honestly, when I was a teen we all did this. Heartbroken for these families, but not sure what is gained from charging anyone. The girls made the choice, just as we did back in the day.

This is the second time it has happened in under a year. That's five teens, dead.

What is gained is the parents of the dead teens will know who was responsible for procuring the alcohol, which is a serious crime.

JMO

 

[Gardenista]

As one of the comments suggested, it's likely the alcohol came from one of the family members--maybe even a sibling. Can you imagine if another child went to prison for life over this? It would be like another child was killed.

If none the parent's of the girls want to prosecute, then I don't think they should prosecute.

 

[MyBelle]

I am very libertarian in many ways, born in a small agri town. But I think graduated drivers licenses are a good idea and I think there really could be support from the libertarian side for this. But it has to brought up in the right way.

Nebraska has graduated driver's licenses and it is a very conservative state. Where anyone got the idea that it is libertarian in any way is beyond me. The Unicameral is non-partisan.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

As one of the comments suggested, it's likely the alcohol came from one of the family members--maybe even a sibling. Can you imagine if another child went to prison for life over this? It would be like another child was killed.

If none the parent's of the girls want to prosecute, then I don't think they should prosecute.

I've seen no indication whatsoever that the alcohol came from a family member but if it did, they should be prosecuted. I've lived in a nearby community for many years and there have been prosecutions here.

I've also not seen any of the grieving parents say they don't want it prosecuted.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

I don’t know how much I can say without breaking TOS, so mods please delete, but I believe her mom is an attorney. I’m guessing that factored into the families decision to hire an attorney.

I have many mutual friends with several of the girls’ parents. I have kids of my own who will be driving in a few short years. This stuff terrifies me to no end.

There’s a Facebook post, and I think it’s probably ok to hint at searching for it because it’s really got nothing to do with the crash or any of the details, but it really hit home for me. The main point of it was “I was these girls...” written by a female who is about my age. It hit so close to home because I too was these girls, just like so many others. Out having fun with my friends, on summer break, windows down, music blaring and singing along, not a care in the world. At that age, you feel invincible.

Gosh, it just breaks my heart. Knowing that 4 girls made decisions that cost their life. The adolescent brain isn’t developed fully yet, they can’t and don’t make reasonable choices no matter how much and what they are taught. These girls came from GREAT families, I’m fairly certain their parents knew who they were with. This isn’t a case of teens out causing problems. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE. I’m just rambling, but I think you get my point. I hope from this tragedy comes something good, I hope it drives home the message of how dangerous drinking and driving is, the message of how dangerous reckless driving is, and the message that you aren’t invincible.

BBM. I disagree. Drunk drivers are a menace to other drivers and their age and gender are irrelevant. The driver in this case was driving over 90 mph. What if she had struck another car and killed people? Their parents weren't all that "great" if they failed to convey to their child that there are consequences for illegal and incredibly irresponsible actions.

The surviving teen can be prosecuted for obstruction of justice so I don't blame her parents for getting her a lawyer. I would do the same thing if it were my daughter. Hopefully, other teens have learned from this tragedy. It has certainly been in the local news headlines daily.

JMO