I was glad to see your piece in Sunday’s paper about the apparent rash of car vs. pedestrian incidents recently involving teens, often at night.
As an old guy, I still wonder about the young people wandering the streets at 11 p.m., midnight, or even later. No place to go and no specific agenda to me equals “stay at home and be safer.” My children grew to be clever and happy adults even though their “freedoms” were circumscribed with loving care.
My wife and I drive from Snohomish to Marysville on Highway 9 most early Saturday evenings throughout the year. In the winter, it is actually dark at that time and there are spots of very poor lighting along the road. I have seen now and then a group of younger teenagers walking cluster style on the shoulder and not against the traffic as is safer, all wearing dark color hoodies with no safety striping. I barely saw them until I was right on them and a bit of larking and shoving could easily have put one of them in my path.
Parents are obligated by common sense, if not the law of God or mankind, to see that their children know the rules of the road and are appropriately prepared to be out and about. I can see that this may sound a bit high-horse soapbox, but it never hurts to have reminders put before us. I have appreciated such in my life.
Jack McClurg
Marysville
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