Blogger Drew McManus has collected various news links of this senseless tragedy here.
An eloquent comment from the Statesman Journal’s bulletin board:
Angela and Kjersten were my colleagues, my friends. I am still in shock and deeply grieved to learn of their deaths–they were beautiful, brilliant, dedicated and…oh, so deeply loved and appreciated by the many whose lives they touched. I am so grateful that Kelly survived and saddened that she must live with such a nightmare–watching her long-time colleagues and friends die a horrible, needless death.
Needless to say, I AM FURIOUS that their PRECIOUS lives were cut short by the WIM of a SENSELESS, THOUGHTLESS, RECKLESS woman’s choice.
AND I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO ANYONE WHO HAS EVER ALLOWED THEMSELVES TO GET DRUNK, ANYONE WHO HAS WATCHED SOMEONE GET DRUNK AND GET BEHIND THE WHEEL, TO EVERYONE WHO HAS GOTTEN HIGH, AND TO ANYONE WHO IS GUILTY OF RECKLESS DRIVING IN THE FORM OF PLAIN STUPIDITY, IMMATURITY, TALKING, TEXTING, OR FIDDLING WITH THEIR CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING HANDS-FREE OR OTHERWISE(it is a well-known fact that the simple distraction of a phone conversation is the same as driving while intoxicated):
For the Love of God, have regard for human life other than your own! Would you trade the place of your husband, mother or baby, with Angela or Kjersten?? You wouldn’t want your dog to suffer that kind of death, so why would you continue to choose to do these things when you know what could happen?! Servers should be held accountable for over-serving their drunk customers, friends who let drunk people get behind the wheel are every bit as much a criminal. When you drive, JUST DRIVE and drive defensively.
When you lack the basic kind of self-control that prevents you from harming other people, and I do not exempt the millions of self-important prigs rushing from here to there and rummaging through their car to find and answer that ever-important-ringing-cell-phone while merging onto a busy freeway, you ought to be put behind bars where you will never, EVER again have the opportunity to harm anyone except yourself.
I hope that the deaths of Angela and Kjersten and countless others registers a conviction and a 180 in millions of people that believe their actions have no consequences, that think life revolves around them–because in the end, the only thing that will surround them is death.