In a completely preventable tragedy, a car accident in Union County took the life of Weddington High School student Riley Laymon. Four other students suffered serious injuries in the crash.
According to North Carolina State Troopers, a group of high school students were traveling on Antioch Road when the driver, 17 year old Robert Cooke III, lost control of the vehicle, a pickup truck, causing it to flip two times. Roads were wet Saturday, and Troopers believe Cooke was traveling too fast for conditions when he rounded a curve and went off the roadway, causing the truck to roll.
Cooke, who still had his provisional drivers license, was only lawfully allowed to have one passenger in the vehicle. He has been charged with Failure to Wear a Seatbelt, Failure to Comply with License Restrictions, and Misdemeanor Death by Motor Vehicle.
Four of the five passengers in this Cooke's pickup truck were not wearing seatbelts. Three of the teens were completely ejected from the vehicle, and a fourth teen was partially ejected. Only the belted teen was not ejected, and she only suffered minor injuries and has already been released from the hospital.
Under North Carolina law, every occupant of a motor vehicle is required to use a seatbelt when the car is moving. It does not matter where in the vehicle the passenger is seated--the law requires all passengers to be belted. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that at least 13,000 lives each year are saved due to seatbelt use. Proper seatbelt use prevents the ejection of a vehicle occupant in a serious collision or rollover. It is a mystery why four out of five of these teens did not wear their seatbelts.
North Carolina law also requires that holders of a provisional license may not have more than 1 passenger when driving unsupervised. Robert Cooke only held a provisional license at the time of this accident, and by law, was limited to only 1 passenger, yet there were 4. The limitation on the number of passengers allowed in the vehicle of a provisional license holder is intended to reduce driver distraction. It is a mystery why Robert Cooke exceeded the legal number of passengers he was allowed to drive with his provisional license.
Troopers believe that Cooke was driving too fast for conditions when he rounded the curve of a wet Antioch Road on Saturday. This is simple inexperience. Often times, teen drivers believe that if the speed limit on a particular road is 45mph, that they must drive 45mph, and will fail to take into consideration other factors, such as weather or road conditions.
It is heartbreaking to read about the factors surrounding this incident, but how do we get our teens to buckle up and to follow traffic laws? That is what is really a mystery. We do our very best to instruct, guide and teach our children, but the bottom line is that even the very best and brightest kids make mistakes. Our sincere condolences go out to all the families involved in this tragedy.
