I am the father of two college-age children.
They are both adults. In fact, my son turned 21 this week. (Don't get me started. Kids don't do what we did when we were in college, right?)
That does not mean I do not fret about how they are making out far from home.
And it does not mean my heart does not skip a beat every time the phone rings in the middle of the night.
Such a call can only bring bad news.
Which is why I can empathize with two sets of parents who no doubt got just such a call this week.
They received a call to tell them that their loved ones, both students at Villanova University here in Delaware County, had been involved in a horrific accident. A speeding SUV slammed into the car in which their children were riding. One young man was killed; another was critically injured.
In an instant, lives were overturned.
It's ironic that we refer to this as an "accident."
That's because this was no accident.
Police have now made an arrest in the case. A 21-year-old West Philadelphia man was charged as the driver of the stolen SUV that was believed to going 100 mph along Haverford Road at the time of the crash. This morning police are saying he was not the driver and have in fact charged a second man. It appears all charges against the first man are being dropped.
It will not bring back Daniel Giletta.
In the blink of an eye, the promising life of Giletta, a 21-year-old senior, was snuffed out. The passenger in his car, Daniel DiChiara, 22, a junior sociology major, was critically injured.
I think of their parents, and the phone calls they both received in the middle of the night.
And I feel that same terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.
They are both adults. In fact, my son turned 21 this week. (Don't get me started. Kids don't do what we did when we were in college, right?)
That does not mean I do not fret about how they are making out far from home.
And it does not mean my heart does not skip a beat every time the phone rings in the middle of the night.
Such a call can only bring bad news.
Which is why I can empathize with two sets of parents who no doubt got just such a call this week.
They received a call to tell them that their loved ones, both students at Villanova University here in Delaware County, had been involved in a horrific accident. A speeding SUV slammed into the car in which their children were riding. One young man was killed; another was critically injured.
In an instant, lives were overturned.
It's ironic that we refer to this as an "accident."
That's because this was no accident.
Police have now made an arrest in the case. A 21-year-old West Philadelphia man was charged as the driver of the stolen SUV that was believed to going 100 mph along Haverford Road at the time of the crash. This morning police are saying he was not the driver and have in fact charged a second man. It appears all charges against the first man are being dropped.
It will not bring back Daniel Giletta.
In the blink of an eye, the promising life of Giletta, a 21-year-old senior, was snuffed out. The passenger in his car, Daniel DiChiara, 22, a junior sociology major, was critically injured.
I think of their parents, and the phone calls they both received in the middle of the night.
And I feel that same terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.
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