Sunday, April 24, 2005
Third tragedy in six months
Holly Clancy tragically lost her life in a single car traffic accident April 23rd on Snyder Road.
In the last six months this is the third teenage fatality in Farragut.
Greg Palmer tragically lost his life October 1st 2004 at Turkey Creek Road and Redmill Lane in a two-car accident.
Megan Birkel tragically lost her life in a single car accident on Virtue Road on February 1st 2005.
When will we as a community make the decision that speeding and wreckless driving are the greatest problems in our community?
What are you doing as a resident to solve this problem? Do you set a good example by driving the speed limit? Are you part of the problem?
What is our town government doing to make this problem better? Should they take a second look at older roads and redesign them if they are not safe?
What is the Knox County Sheriffs Department doing to enforce traffic laws? Is traffic enforcement a high enough priority?
What is Farragut High School doing to address this serious problem? Does the high school have a role in reaching out to teenagers concerning traffic safety?
Every two weeks on Thursday night at the 7:00 PM meeting of the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen there is a Citizen's Forum at the beginning of the evening. Each citizen can address the Mayor and Aldermen for five minutes on any subject. This meeting is broadcast on Charter Cable Channel Three. The next meeting is Thursday April 28th.
Is it time for you to get involved?
More details on this latest accident are available here:
http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=25147
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=3252226
In the last six months this is the third teenage fatality in Farragut.
Greg Palmer tragically lost his life October 1st 2004 at Turkey Creek Road and Redmill Lane in a two-car accident.
Megan Birkel tragically lost her life in a single car accident on Virtue Road on February 1st 2005.
When will we as a community make the decision that speeding and wreckless driving are the greatest problems in our community?
What are you doing as a resident to solve this problem? Do you set a good example by driving the speed limit? Are you part of the problem?
What is our town government doing to make this problem better? Should they take a second look at older roads and redesign them if they are not safe?
What is the Knox County Sheriffs Department doing to enforce traffic laws? Is traffic enforcement a high enough priority?
What is Farragut High School doing to address this serious problem? Does the high school have a role in reaching out to teenagers concerning traffic safety?
Every two weeks on Thursday night at the 7:00 PM meeting of the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen there is a Citizen's Forum at the beginning of the evening. Each citizen can address the Mayor and Aldermen for five minutes on any subject. This meeting is broadcast on Charter Cable Channel Three. The next meeting is Thursday April 28th.
Is it time for you to get involved?
More details on this latest accident are available here:
http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=25147
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=3252226
Comments:
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The City of Knoxville has a site online that citizens can make suggestions on traffic safety.
Should the Town of Farragut have the same?
http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/traffic/requests.asp
Should the Town of Farragut have the same?
http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/traffic/requests.asp
Duh! The town of Farragut IS in the Road Business, so they'd better take care of it! If it means getting into the law enforcement business, so be it!
# posted by 
: 9:51 AM, April 25, 2005
: 9:51 AM, April 25, 2005
What about the parents? From what I read in the news reports, Holly Clancy was at a party with several minors drinking beer bought by a 21-year-old. Ask the parents in Farragut and Knoxville if they have a responsibility to know where their underaged children are.
Ms. Clancy's sad death had little to do with roads and gov't. It had everything to do with uninvolved parents.
Ms. Clancy's sad death had little to do with roads and gov't. It had everything to do with uninvolved parents.
With today’s KNS we know much more about this story.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3732038,00.html
Daliwood is correct that parent’s lack of involvement was an important factor. The total lack of personal responsibility of these teenagers was the most important factor.
Sheriff Hutchison said, “Parents should be talking to parents. As is often the case, parents of some of the eight or nine people at the Neely party thought their teenage children were spending the night with other teens. But none of the parents spoke to the other adults to confirm the arrangements.”
No personal responsibility was present that evening. Only one person was over 21 years old and sadly that person, Josh Hutchens, was the one that purchased the beer. This party that only eight teenagers attended had 23 six packs of beer.
Will we ever know why Holly did not wear a safety belt or why Manning did not insist she wear a safety belt? Why did no one stop Manning from driving? Could they not have called someone to take Holly home?
This is a dangerous road. It has had one fatality and 7 wrecks in 5 years. Did Manning know this road? Had he used the same road earlier in the evening when he picked up Holly?
Many lives will be forever changed by what happened on a Saturday in April.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3732038,00.html
Daliwood is correct that parent’s lack of involvement was an important factor. The total lack of personal responsibility of these teenagers was the most important factor.
Sheriff Hutchison said, “Parents should be talking to parents. As is often the case, parents of some of the eight or nine people at the Neely party thought their teenage children were spending the night with other teens. But none of the parents spoke to the other adults to confirm the arrangements.”
No personal responsibility was present that evening. Only one person was over 21 years old and sadly that person, Josh Hutchens, was the one that purchased the beer. This party that only eight teenagers attended had 23 six packs of beer.
Will we ever know why Holly did not wear a safety belt or why Manning did not insist she wear a safety belt? Why did no one stop Manning from driving? Could they not have called someone to take Holly home?
This is a dangerous road. It has had one fatality and 7 wrecks in 5 years. Did Manning know this road? Had he used the same road earlier in the evening when he picked up Holly?
Many lives will be forever changed by what happened on a Saturday in April.
Anyone hear about the latest accident on Virtue Road? A car which would have hit a tree went through the fence and ended up on Willow Creek golf course.
I guess it is a good thing those trees were cut down.
I guess it is a good thing those trees were cut down.
# posted by : 10:32 AM, April 29, 2005
: 10:32 AM, April 29, 2005
Also, did you hear about the accident at Northshore and Concord this morning? I hope nobody got hurt.
THERE IS MUCH LEFT UNSAID IN THE MEDIA - and many assumptions being made in the Holly Clancy story. I know both families personally and these teens could not have been given better parenting. BOTH sets of parents were bery involved in their children's life. Both children lied to parents about their whereabouts and both were able to pull it off in spite of parents verifying information. These kids made horrible choices that night - not because of anything a PARENT did or didn't do, but because ultimately an ADULT in the crowd did not act like an adult.
# posted by : 12:03 AM, May 21, 2005
: 12:03 AM, May 21, 2005
Neither speed nor drinking led to the accident that Megan Birkel was involved in. There was a witness to this accident who verified this -- that it was just a horrible accident. She was wearing a seatbelt. The improvements made to Virtue Road (cutting the trees down) may have saved a life. But please do not lump Megan into the crowd of dangerous drunk drivers.
# posted by : 10:41 AM, November 29, 2007
: 10:41 AM, November 29, 2007
The accident of Megan Birkel had nothing to do with reckless or impaired driving.She was wearing her seatbelt and hit a patch of ice.So,before you go assuming that every time a teen loses their life on the road was drunk or high please make sure you get your facts straight.
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# posted by : 9:37 AM, November 08, 2009
: 9:37 AM, November 08, 2009<< Home
