| Author |
Message |
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
 Wed Sep 24, 2003 8:45 am Firefighter Finds His Children Dead at Crash Scene |
|
| Quote: | Firefighter Finds His Children Dead at Crash Scene
Car's Driver Charged With Homicide, Drunken Driving
By ELLIOTT MINOR, AP
DOUGLAS, Ga. (Sept. 24) - Volunteer firefighter David Varnedore rushed to the scene of a car accident prepared to help strangers in need. Then he came across the body of his own son. And then the body of his elder daughter.
Varnedore's two children were among five youngsters killed Saturday night when a car on a curving road struck an all-terrain vehicle the kids had crowded onto during a birthday party. A sixth child was critically injured.
Amanda M. Troupe, 29, was charged Tuesday with vehicular homicide and drunken driving in connection with the accident, authorities said. Troupe also was charged with reckless driving and driving on the wrong side of the road in the accident, said State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright.
When Varnedore got to the scene, his son Dustin, 11, was lying face down in a pool of blood. "There was no hope for him," Varnedore recalled Monday, gasping with emotion between every word.
A few feet away, Varnedore found his daughter, Kayla, 13. "My daughter was laying face up and I did CPR on her to no avail," said Varnedore, who lives only a mile away.
The other victims were Lindsay Joiner, 13 of Douglas; Courtney Arsenault, 10, of Alma; and the ATV's driver, Coranne Megan Nelson, 14. Another partygoer, Heather Bass, 13, was listed in critical condition Monday.
Residents of the rural area said the children had attended Nelson's birthday party and decided to celebrate afterward by going for a ride on her ATV.
The off-road vehicle was built for one adult rider, said Gordy Wright, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Public Safety. None of the youngsters was wearing a helmet and Nelson should not have been driving the vehicle on a public road.
"It's just an awful tragedy," said Mayor Max Lockwood. "All the families hope this leads to a better understanding of safety. The kids were in a rural neighborhood, and children just like to hop on those things and ride around in the country."
Varnedore returned to the scene Monday afternoon with his parents, Carol and David Varnedore Sr. About a dozen others gathered there to mourn the young victims.
Dots of orange paint, left by the accident investigators, traced the car's skid marks and blue flags marked the spots where bodies were found. Painted orange circles showed where the car hit the ATV and where key parts of the vehicles had landed.
"You see that spot of blood? That was my son," said the 30-year-old truck driver who became a volunteer firefighter when he was 16. "You see this spot of orange paint? That was my daughter."
Before hurrying home to console his wife and to be with their remaining child, a 2-year-old daughter, Varnedore said the mangled bodies he saw in the ditch made him throw up.
"I won't even tell you what I saw," he said.
The ditch and roadside were littered for about 75 yards with bits of clothing, including a blue and gray tennis shoe, a cloth ponytail holder, a baseball cap and the car's badly mangled front bumper.
The impact of the collision along the two-lane road knocked some candy the young victims had gotten at the party from their pockets and left it scattered along the road.
The accident occurred on a road that separates Coffee and Irwin counties, about 10 miles northwest of Douglas, officials said. The collision happened on a road bordered on one side by forest and the other by pasture.
Donna Reynolds, a safety specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau, said she often sees children and adults riding ATVs on roads. "People are riding ATVs everywhere and people look at them as a toy," she said. "They are not toys. Period."
At West Coffee Middle School, which four of the children attended, counselors went into classrooms Monday to talk to students. The pupils wrote condolence cards to the families.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
|
Last edited by Theresa on Thu Oct 09, 2003 9:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
|
| Wed Sep 24, 2003 9:53 am |
|
That would be sick. It would be bad enough with strangers, but your own children....
|
|
|
Jeff Miller
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 22 Nov 2001
Posts: 23947
Location: Mental Ward for the Mentaly Unstable 6th floor, Saint John's 1615 Delaware Longview Washington 98632
|
| Wed Sep 24, 2003 9:55 am |
|
Wow thats really sad 
|
|
|
jbi507
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 12 Sep 2003
Posts: 254
Location: DS9
|
| Wed Sep 24, 2003 7:37 pm |
|
dam, i feel for that guy, cant imagine that.
|
|
|
CaptJD
Disyple
Joined: 16 Sep 2003
Posts: 2699
Location: Canada!
|
| Wed Sep 24, 2003 8:16 pm |
|
that would really suck...
|
|
|
Qgirl
Captain
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
Posts: 554
Location: Florida
|
| Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:02 pm |
|
I feel so bad for him.
I don't know if I could take it.
The poor family. I feel like cying 
It's just awful.
|
|
|
Curtis
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 29 Sep 2001
Posts: 14903
Location: Wisconsin
|
| Sun Oct 05, 2003 2:37 pm |
|
That poor guy. I can't relate to him seeing as how I don't have kids, but I sure do feel sorry for him. May the good Lord bless him and his family .
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
Star Trek �, in all its various forms, are trademarks & copyrights of Paramount Pictures
This site has no official connection with Star Trek or Paramount Pictures
Site content/Site design elements owned by Morphy and is meant to only be an archive/Tribute to STV.com
|
Search
FAQ
Log in
