THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 43 lines
The deaths of two local teen-age boys in so-called ``car surfing'' incidents are senseless tragedies that should never be repeated.
On July 26, a 14-year-old Poquoson boy died when he fell from the hood of a friend's car in his own driveway. Three weeks later, a 16-year-old Northern Neck boy died from head injuries in a similar accident.
``If two children had died of meningitis, there would be a public health outcry,'' declared Dr. Donald Lewis, a pediatric neurologist at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, where both boys died.
Dr. Lewis is dead right.
In the spring of 1995, a Norfolk Academy football player died tragically of meningitis. Another student at the school was infected but recovered. The community was stunned by the death and was on the lookout for symptoms of the highly contagious disease.
The community should now be on alert for signs of stupid risk-taking by their teen-age children.
Youngsters need to be warned again and again about the dangers of head injuries. Bicycle helmets are the law in most cities, cutting down on the number of head-trauma cases in emergency rooms. But diving into shallow water, body surfing and other sports all too often lead to severe brain damage and death.
Balancing on the hoods of moving cars is something so foolish that until now most parents would never think to warn their children against such behavior.
Children involved in ``car surfing'' incidents - even when the incidents do not end in death or injury - should automatically lose their driving privileges until they are 21.
They should also pay a visit to the grieving family of Michael Green, the 14-year-old who died in July.
Green ``lost his life for one moment of poor decision-making,'' said Buddy Green, his father and a Poquoson city councilman.
``Mike was like lots of other adolescents, raised on advertisements urging them to `Just do it' and to have `No Fear.' They think they're invincible.''
They aren't. by CNB