High School Seniors Killed on Graduation Outing

With my daughter about to graduate from high school, stories like this are particularly disturbing:

Three Riverside County high school students on a senior trip to San Diego were killed, and a fourth was critically injured, Wednesday when their car went off southbound Interstate 15 in Escondido, struck a tree and flipped over.

The students, all teenage boys from Perris High School and heading to an official pre-graduation outing to Mission Beach, are believed to have been racing with another car, a black Honda or Acura, when the accident occurred shortly before 2 p.m., authorities said. None of the victims was identified, but officials at Perris High confirmed that they were seniors at the school.

Wednesday's news shocked students, parents, teachers and administrators, who flocked to the campus in a scene eerily similar to one just two years ago, when another traffic accident killed four teens, including three seniors at the school.

The accident occurred near the center of Escondido, just north of State Route 78 in a hilly area near some commercial development in north San Diego County. Kerns said the three killed suffered "traumatic collision injuries." Two of the occupants of the car, described as a white 1993 Honda Integra, died inside the vehicle. The two other occupants, including the teenager who survived, were ejected.

The survivor, whose injuries were described as life-threatening, was transported to Palomar Medical Center, a trauma treatment facility in Escondido.

Kerns said about half a dozen beer cans, including at least three that were opened, flew out of the car during the crash. The vehicle was crumpled by the collision, with its top sheered off.

The trip was to be one of the high points of senior week, before the last day of class Friday and graduation Saturday at the Lake Elsinore Diamond, a minor-league baseball park.

What a waste. Unfortunately, a great many teenagers think they're bulletproof and will live forever, and as in several cases I've documented on this blog, teenage drivers + speed, and in this case + alcohol = tragic death.

On Saturday the school graduation will go on, but at least three seniors won't be there to collect their diplomas and go on with the next phase of their lives. All because of a bad decision.