Teenage Wasteland... - ChubbyBanana's Blog

ChubbyBanana's Blog

Teenage Wasteland...

Posted on November 14, 2008 at 04:08 AM.

(4)

This actually isn't going to have anything really to do with The Who's Baba O'Reilly, which is a badass song nonetheless. I'm sure you get the catchy title as you read on.

As many of you know I'm a news photographer. I shoot news for a FOX and and ABC Affiliate out of Dayton, Ohio. It's something that I really do enjoy doing. I am not stuck in an office all night, I get to go out and have a new work environment almost everyday. There are somedays though that just make the job not so much fun.

Around 10:45pm I was dispatched to an accident involving a pickup truck and a tree in a rural nearby county. Those are usually never a good scene to be on. Heard over the Fire Radios that the Sheriff's Department had requested a local medical helicpoter to transport one of the patients. Again, not good.

Get there on scene to find a Deputy blocking the road from oncoming traffic. It's at that point he tells me I can't go down yet, as they haven't removed a deceased person from the vehicle yet. I had no idea the accident was going to be a fatality until I got on scene and was told that.

I see them everyday. Accidents, fires, shootings, the list can go on forever. I've seen my fair share of death and destruction from working in this job. When I was a bit younger and less experienced I had a hard time dealing with it. Now it just seems so routine.

Turns out the driver and passenger of the pickup truck were driving down a straight county road at a high rate of speed, and just went off the right side for some unknown reason right into a tree. The driver, who wasn't wearing his seatbelt died instantly in the crash. The passenger who was wearing his seatbelt is expected to survive.

Both the driver and passenger were 16 years old. The real sad part of the story is that they both went to the same high school. Another student from that school, also age 16, just passed away from a traffic crash similiar to this one not 2 weeks ago.

It's also like the 17th fatal accident this rural county has had so far this year. There's just something in the water out there.

It's a Teenage Wasteland...

I just posted like 30 seconds of video from this scene. It has been edited so it's rated G, if not lower. You won't see anything you wouldn't see on TV. Out of respect there is a code for TV News Crews that is unspoken and we all follow. This video lives up to the code.

Comments

# 1 TJdaSportsGuy @ Nov 14

I can imagine that's one of the toughest parts of your job. Makes doing high school football games that much more enjoyable, doesn't it?

# 2 ChubbyBanana @ Nov 14

Both of them were football players at that school also.

# 3 rudyjuly2 @ Nov 14

That would suck to have to see that kind of stuff. I'm always angry though when I read about people not wearing seat belts. What does it take to get through to people to put on a seat belt. It's so stupid not to wear one.