Four Women Collegiate Athletes Killed By an Unknown Distraction

This past Friday, four women from a Texas Community College's softball team were killed when their team bus was rammed by a truck.  Russell Staley, 53, the driver of the truck, was headed Northbound on Interstate 35 when he got distracted and proceeded to drive straight through the median, collided with the bus and then continued on for another 300 feet even after the impact. "He (Staley) said he was distracted by something in the cabin,' said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Ronnie Hampton, who declined to say what the distraction was.  He said investigators don't necessarily agree with Staley's explanation." Investigators are still working to see if the brakes were applied by Staley, because as of right now nothing was wrong with the trucks brake system, but they are downloading the truck's data recorder, which would show if the brakes were applied. Below the picture shows the damage of the truck after it had gone barreling through the median and collided with the bus.

Damage to Staley's Truck

 It seems very cruel that four young college women lost their lives on behalf of a distraction in a car.

Distractions in cars are everywhere now, especially in this day in age with our technology.  For example, someone texting while driving endangers themselves with a chance that they are 23 times more likely to crash.  Some might say well obviously texting would create a bigger distraction, but phone calls would be fine. Wrong.  Talking on a cell phone while driving can make a young driver's reaction time as slow as that of a 70 year old. There are tons of things on the road to distract drivers and In 2012, 33,561 people died in motor vehicle accidents, the first increase in numbers since 2005. Clearly, drivers can get distracted very easily, causing many fatalities. Hopefully upon further investigation, the police will learn what the true distraction was and hopefully be able to provide some comfort to those who lost loved ones in the crash.