Many times we think of the other guy and what happens to him when he doesn’t stop for the stop sign or just fail to yield the right of way while turning. For young drivers it’s important to look at what it could mean to you, the driver who makes the mistake. It’s not always someone else with too much to do or too many distractions that make them miss a stop sign or fail to yield when turning. It can be you with too many younger adults in the car or truck. It could even be you that makes the mistake and pays the ultimate price; it could be you that dies.

Today we look at one such case. On August 2nd, 2009 Judith Fredrickson died after she failed to yield while making a left hand turn onto highway 141 Eastbound. Her 2009 Impala ran into a Northbound 2001 Jeep Cherokee driven by Noah Mayer of Harlan. There were 5 others injured as a result of the crash; Gerald Fredrickson, Rickey Dean, Mark Gunderson, Corey Leslie, and Schuyler Keisel. Rickey Dean was transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha by Life Net, Gerald Fredrickson, Noah Mayer, Mark Gunderson, Cory Leslie, and Schuyler Keisel were all transported by Crawford County Ambulance to Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison.

Look at all of the people whose lives are affected by this one inadvertent act of misdirected attention. As many of these as I see I still wonder, what they were doing or thinking about that leads the driver to fail to stop for the stop sign or doesn’t yield.