Final hours

Seattle Times photo

Max was a brilliant 13-year-old Seattle public school student, one who attended a middle school with a program for gifted kids.  He returned from a vacation in Peru with his mother and siblings on Sunday.  On Monday, Max persuaded his dad to take him and three friends, ages 12 and 13, for a drive over Snoqualmie Pass.

His father attempted to pass another car.  He lost control, and rolled his SUV.  None of the boys was wearing a seatbelt.  All were ejected from the car.  The father was wearing his seatbelt and received no serious injuries.  The car that was being passed sustained only minor damage, and none of its passengers was injured.

Max was killed.  Two of his friends are in critical condition, and the other is in serious condition.  All are in intensive care. 

The father apparently had been using a prescription medication at the time of the accident.  The medication and the condition for which it was prescribed have not been disclosed.  The father was arrested for driving under the influence of the medication, and charged with vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault.

This entire story is so tragic in so many respects.  Max had begged his father to take them for a ride.  Aside from the medication, there is no suggestion that the father wasn't an excellent parent.  He's now lost his son, and knows he has caused the severe injury, possibly fatal, of three other boys.  I suspect his legal liability is the last thing he cares about at this point.

The boys should have been wearing their seatbelts.  This is an accident in which seatbelts obviously made the difference between life and serious injury or death.  And the father, I'm sure, realizes that he should have checked to make sure that the kids were belted up before starting the engine.  And yet, who can blame the kids for acting like kids?  And who hasn't forgotten, more than once, to check that all his passengers were belted up?

But beyond these obvious legal and safety issues, what strikes me -- hardly for the first time -- is how precarious a hold on life we all have.  I think of Max, home from an amazing vacation, eager to have a final outing with school friends before school started, begging his dad for a ride.  He came from a good family; he was bright and was about to return to an excellent school; and he was blessed with close friends.  He probably had already begun having thoughts about high school, and even about where he hoped to attend college. Life couldn't have looked brighter.

He could never have suspected, when he and his friends jumped into his dad's car, that he had only a few short hours before his life would be over.  His mother recalled that Max

convinced his father (my ex) to take them on a road trip. I kissed my son goodbye, told him that I loved him and got a call from the state trooper 5 hours later … He was brilliant and kind and fun and strong-willed and had so much life ahead of him.

His school is making plans to provide counseling to the boys' classmates when school opens next week.