Erin Leary & South Shore Charter School

By Kaitlin Keane The Patriot Ledger Posted Aug 08, 2009 @ 09:20 AM

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NORWELL —

It is a routine students at South Shore Charter Public School know too well.

As news of Erin Leary’s death spread through the tight-knit community this week, a familiar process began: Students, and faculty rallied together to support Leary’s family and cope with yet another loss.

Leary is the fourth student from South Shore Charter Public to die in three years. Since 2006, the school has lost students to car crashes, leukemia and suicide.

For the small Norwell school, where a graduating class barely exceeds 20 students and friendships span all grade levels, news of another death was devastating.

“It’s so many deaths in such a short time at such a small school,” said director Pru Goodale, who notified students Friday. “It’s just so much for them to absorb.”

Goodale said the school has become painfully familiar with the necessary steps that follow a death. Grief councilors are called in, families are notified, and students are comforted.

“We’re like a family,” said Carly Anne Hayes, a 2009 graduate whose sister, Alison, died of leukemia last year.

Hayes said the deaths have only strengthened a bond forged early on, as the new school moved to three locations before settling in Norwell.

“We’ve grown through these things,” Hayes said. “They always bring in outside councilors, but we never seem to need them as much as they expect because we have each other.”

Parents of students who have died continue to bond together in support of the school and each other, Goodale said.

A memorial garden was planted on school grounds by mothers of the students, and a scholarship to pay for mandatory defensive-driving lessons was started by Lucy Wightman after her daughter, Torri was killed in a 2006 crash.

Goodale said grief councilors will be available at the school Monday, and more help will be available to students when school starts in September.

Erin Leary

The wreckage came to rest against a guardrail.

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

Two teenagers were killed and three others were injured today in a crash this morning on Route 1 in Revere, authorities said.

A 2000 Mitsubishi Montero carrying five people rolled over at 11:17 a.m. on the Route 1 elevated roadway above the Route 60 rotary, according to Trooper Thomas Murphy, a State Police spokesman. The three survivors were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Northbound lanes were closed for more than two hours, but police opened one lane by midafternoon, leaving one lane closed for investigation of the crash.

“The investigation is ongoing and fluid at this point,” said Dave Procopio, State Police spokesman, in an e-mail.

The car struck a guardrail on the right side of the road, then rolled over, stopping on the left shoulder, Murphy said.

Killed were a 16-year-old girl from Hull and a 17-year-old boy from Ipswich, who were sitting in the back left and back center seats, respectively. The boy was the only passenger not wearing a seat belt. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Three others, the 19-year-old driver from Weymouth, a 17-year-old from Weymouth, and a 17-year-old from New Hampshire suffered serious injuries, Murphy said.

“Considering the traffic in the area, we’re lucky there weren’t more fatalities,” Murphy said, while briefing reporters in a movie theater parking lot along Route 1 near the crash.

It was the second fatal crash in the Boston area within an eight-hour period. Christopher L. Leavitts, 26, of Woburn, was killed about 3:02 a.m. today when his car veered to the right, struck the guardrail in the breakdown lane, and then rolled over on Interstate 93 North in Somerville.

Leavitts was driving a 1992 Toyota Camry that veered to the right, struck the guardrail in the breakdown lane, and rolled over, coming to rest in the two right travel lanes. Leavitts, who was not wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene.

On My Summer Vacation I...

helped a little to make a video shown to parents of teenagers taking driver’s education

and I really hope that it makes even one person make the right choice.

Fast forward to 6:45 minutes if you are rushed but try to watch the video… it is very well done by my friend Dan.

And I was able to add something at the end.


This video will move to Safer Driving

Update on 07.31.2009 by Lucy Wightman

well gosh maybe someone could give it an eyeball… 

Driving on Weed

Drunk Driving Simulation

Driver education needs major tuneup

By Ellen Freman Roth
Sunday, January 25, 2009

My son and daughter told me that students in their driver education program spent most of their 30 classroom hours texting friends and doing homework.

The classes are useless, they each told me, and when I ranted that the classes are important, my daughter retorted, “You just don’t get it.”

I got it when I attended the state-mandated, two-hour parent curriculum. For 10 minutes, the teacher reviewed the laws concerning the junior operator license, then for an hour and 50 minutes he detailed his personal driving history (which included extensive drag racing as a teen).

And the driving lessons? The instructor told my daughter she was almost ready to get her license. That was around the time my daughter nearly drove us into an oncoming car when she failed to yield on a left turn.

Driver education programs are licensed by the state Registry of Motor Vehicles, and many programs should have expired years ago. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cited motor-vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for 15- to 20-year-olds nationwide. That age group has the highest fatal crash rate of any age group. Nearly 3,500 15- to 20-year-old drivers were killed and another 272,000 were injured in motor-vehicle crashes in 2006, the NHTSA told Congress.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that lives are saved with graduated driver licensing such as Massachusetts’ junior operator license, which imposes curfews and passenger restrictions on young drivers. But could we do better if those drivers were more prepared to take the wheel?

Though the driving instructor had given my daughter a green light to take her licensing road test, I didn’t. (Cue daughter gnashing her teeth.) I wanted her to get more experience behind the wheel and that included taking an advanced driving skills course. I signed us both up for a four-hour crash-prevention course, In Control Advanced Driver Training.

During the brief and engaging classroom instruction alternating with behind-the-wheel drills, no students texted friends or did homework. In a training area under supervision - as they say, don’t try this on your own - we practiced heart-racing highway speed panic stops and emergency lane changes, feeling the seat belts lock and cars shake.

There’s such intense braking and swerving in the drills that the practice cars need fresh tires every six days.

We learned the danger of tailgating by driving beside a pace car at what we’d considered a safe distance but in reality would have ended with a hearse ride for each of us. The takeaway: Stay at least three seconds behind other cars.

In early drills we sometimes hit the cones - markers for would-be people, vehicles or trees. By practicing each drill we all improved our reaction times and handling.

The NHSTA is exploring new guidelines for driver education program content, delivery and quality control. But the Registry of Motor Vehicles shouldn’t wait to overhaul standards and licensing of driver education. It’s time to buckle down, because drivers education programs that drive our teens up the wall in class may be doing the same on the road.

Erin Leith Trial Continued... Again

Erin Leith, 18, was charged with misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide

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Erin Leith Trial

Jury to decide whether puddle or speed caused car accident

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Torri Wightman Safe Driving Fund

… the remarkable woman who has taken on the cause in the spirit of Torri…

 

South Shore Charter Public School

 Here is the first class of newly skilled drivers required by the Souh Shore Charter Public School to take Advanced Driver Training thereby earning the privilege to drive a vehicle on school property.

Torri Wightman Benefit - The Salem News

Thank you Michelle Morrissey 

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About Torri from a Stranger

I’m also sixteen and just the fact that it was a car accident…it’s just so scary. She wasn’t even driving and yet it happened anyway. I recently just got my permit and now every time I think about driving, I become concerned and actually kind of frightened. I’m not really sure what I am trying to say, but just the thought of someone just so captivating and absolutely beautiful being taken away from this Earth like that.

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Required at the South Shore Charter Public School

That is the goal of accident prevention training: to get drivers comfortable with maneuvering in dangerous situations before they encounter them on the road, said Dan Strollo, president of In Control Advanced Driver Training.

The four-hour course is now required for any student at South Shore Charter School who wants a parking permit. It is the first school in the area to require training in addition to traditional driver’s education, Strollo said.

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Mother hopes safe-driving course spares other parents her pain

Today, the first two groups of students from South Shore Charter School in Norwell, where Torri was a student, will be at the South Weymouth Naval Air Station for a course on driving.

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Preventing Tragedy

Students at South Shore Charter School in Norwell who want to take a car to classes are now required to complete a 4 -hour advanced driver training course to earn parking privileges.

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Torri's Law

36% of teenage fatalities happen in automobiles. It is the leading cause of death for those aged 16 to 20. Torri Wightman was 16 years and 53 days old when she rode in the back seat of the car she died in at 11 am on a rainy Tuesday. Had the teenage driver taken advanced driver skills training there is more than a 70% chance that my only child would be alive.

The CDC reports that the most strict and comprehensive graduated drivers licensing programs are associated with reductions of 38% and 40% in fatal and injury crashes, respectively, of 16-year-old drivers (Baker et al. 2007).

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Raking Leaves and Questions

Today while I raked the leaves over the solid green grass that covers my only child’s dead body I wondered why, of the 430 people killed in car crashes this year in Massachusetts, why her?  I wonder when I hear the news of another avoidable young death, why her or why him?  The latter question is more able to be answered.

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South Shore Charter Public School

If the driver of Torri’s car had taken it, there is as high as a 95% chance my Bean would be here today. 

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Grieving mother's sentencing call

A mother whose daughter was killed by a teenage motorist has said proposals to reduce road deaths must be backed up by tougher sentencing in the courts.

Elizabeth Davidson, from Hamilton, lost her daughter Margaret, 26, in a car crash in May. Her 19-year-old killer was sentenced to four years in jail.

Ms Davidson said courts must impose the maximum sentence available of 14 years.

Her call was made as she backed plans by insurers to make learner drivers take lessons for at least 12 months.

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The Epidemic

To connect to what is real… someone’s daughter or son, a child’s body alone and dying without a chance… bleeding, convulsing, writhing in a lonely, senseless death - it is too much to feel.  Maybe this is why no one is doing a damn thing about the problem, the epidemic that actually has its vaccinations. 

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