Hall County teacher’s tragic death is a somber reminder cars are not toys
Jason Hughes’ death in Hall County at just 40 years old is hard enough to swallow.
But the circumstances surrounding the math teacher’s last moments and the effect it will have on so many lives are especially painful. According to news reports, Hughes died after he playfully confronted North Hall High School students, who were toilet paper-rolling his house the night of March 6. He somehow slipped and fell in the path of one of the pranksters’ vehicles and was run over.
According to the family attorney for the 18-year-old driver, the teen did not see Hughes and had only driven a few feet.
The five teens rendered aid to their dying mentor and teacher. But he succumbed to his injuries, prompting the Hall County Sheriff’s Office to initially charge the teens before the district attorney dropped the case Friday. Hughes’ family also had called for the students to not be charged.
The 18-year-old driver had been facing a first-degree vehicular homicide count, a felony which he can lead to a multiyear prison sentence.
Very little about this travesty is straightforward. But one truth was abundantly clear that grim evening: Cars are not toys; cars can kill. And that should be a stern lesson to others, especially newer drivers.
The dangers of automobiles may seem obvious, but people’s actions rarely meet that risk. Despite cars being safer than they’ve ever been, roughly 40,000 people die in crashes in the U.S. each year. In no demographic is an ignorance of the gravity of operating a vehicle more profound than among teen drivers. This is understandable.
The prefrontal cortex, which essentially helps people assess risk, is not fully formed until about age 25. Compared with adults, teens don’t always pause to think — that one little hitch between impulse and action. And operating those convenient steel missiles we know as cars turns out to not be all that difficult. So, teens plus cars can be a bad combination.
Young drivers can play video games to bolster some of the motor skills and reflexes needed in driving. But that same simulation can also numb them to the real-life risks of crashing and the unpredictable obstacles that can appear in split seconds.
Treating a car like a toy is easy. A small flick of the hand and jab of the gas in an emotional outburst is something every driver has done. And, frankly, the risk stays low when the driver (and everyone else nearby) is alert and maintains control. But rarely, if ever, can a driver control all variables in that ecosystem.
Other vehicles can suddenly brake. Debris may fall in the road. Or someone could unexpectedly step or fall in front of the car.
A trauma surgeon at a recent Lutzie 43 Foundation safe driving summit told me nearly half of the teen automobile injuries he sees are from people who were unrestrained in Jeeps or trucks and go flying and flailing when the vehicle makes a sudden move. There were no bad intentions, just ignored risks.
As a teenager, I once drove my car very slowly in my church parking lot with my brother sitting on top of the trunk. We were just clowning around for a few seconds. An adult ran toward me and chewed us out. They had known someone who had gotten badly hurt doing exactly the same thing.
From all known accounts, those Hall County teenagers were not operating their vehicle erratically. But a family lost its husband and father, a community lost a mentor and leader, and five teenagers’ lives changed forever because cars are deadly. Those kids will have to live with that harrowing moment for the rest of their lives.
Cars are fun, but they aren’t toys. Godspeed to Jason Hughes and the thousands of others who have and will lose their lives because people forget that.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.
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