ps-i hate the thought of the coach telling the girls just a week ago not to run alone, if this is true as indicated in an earlier post...but teens do tend to think they are indestructible, sadly...
I don't know how much of it is thinking they are indestructible and how much is just making a not so wise decision. How many poor choices have we made 'in the moment' (so to speak) ourselves over the years but have never had anything bad happen to us? We've been very lucky. Some people just aren't. That choice to walk home in the dark instead of taking the bus because it's quicker, the choice to cut through a field instead of sticking to the road, the choice to help a stranger...sometimes we get away with things and other times those choices cost us.
In fact, I want to add that my brother and his bestfriend decided they had to have candy at 2am when they were only 10 years old so they snuck out of the house and down to the Circle K (at least a mile one way from our house). My mom had a knock on the front door (my dad was out of town) and answered it to a police officer with a boy in each hand. He told my mom, "Poway is a relatively safe town, ma'am, but I still wouldn't want to be taking any chances." That was in 1982. Not such a wise decision on my brother's part and he is very lucky that a cop caught them.