I’m posting this very brief piece on Thanksgiving Day, a day I wouldn’t normally be working.
But as I was thinking last night of all that I have in this life – many things that others less fortunate than I don’t have – the idea of loss struck home as I noticed a news item that I had placed on my “To Do” list. That item was the fact that, just 3 or so blocks from me here in Westwood, a six year-old boy was killed last Sunday, November 19. The boy’s name was Edward “Eddie” Thomson. He died two days after being hit as a pedestrian in a crosswalk by a car at around 3:00 PM at the corner of Pond Street and Lakeshore Drive. Westwood police have commented that the incident appears to be accidental. I’m not surprised: the At that time of day at this time of year, the sun is very low in the sky, and even if a driver isn’t heading west, at the angle that the sun sets at this time of year, at 3:00 PM it can blind you easily. As I said, the corner of Lakeshore Drive and Pond Street is only about three blocks from where my wife Debbi and I live. News like this hits home, when it happens five minutes from your own life.
Life can be so fragile. As an attorney who specializes in auto accident cases, I see tragic accidents like this far too frequently. It’s easy to think that these awful, fatal accidents happen mostly on the highway – out on Route 128 or the Mass. Pike – but they don’t just happen on high-speed roads. Fatal pedestrian-motor vehicle accidents can happen in a neighborhood, as happened here – and lifelong injuries and yes, death, can result – from a vehcile traveling as slow as 10 or 15 MPH.
When I contemplate again today of what I have to be thankful for in my life, I will say a prayer for the family of this young boy. Imagine how they must feel right now. I’m sorry for them.
I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it again: Pay 1000% attention to what’s around you when you’re driving. All it takes is a second for something to go wrong. And life can be changed, or ended. And when it is, that one second in time cannot be rewound.