My sympathy level has reached an all-time low.
Over Labor Day weekend in Ontario, California, five young men lost their lives in a car crash. Horrible. Sad. I am sorry for their family and friends.
However, my deepest sympathy is somewhat limited in this case. Turns out the driver, Ervin McKinness, 21, was drinking, Tweeting and driving. Even though it’s been proven that using any type of mobile device whilst driving can be deadly, many folks–mostly youngins–choose to ignore it. One would think that with all of the information out there about how dangerous it is to text/Tweet while driving that most folks wouldn’t partake in something so dangerous.
Not so fast. Enter #YOLO or “You Only Live Once” — a saying made famous by the performer Drake, which has since been turned into a popular Twitter hashtag used by Tweeters ranging from ordinary folks to Katie Couric. Apparently, young folks have taken this #yolo as a shout-out to do real dumb things, like drive drunk and Tweet about it.
It’s sad that the aspiring rapper/singer’s life & the lives of four others were cut short by his stupidity.
What irritates me about the Vibe.com article is this part: “Ervin McKinness, 21, died in the car crash, which police say occurred around 1:40AM on Labor Day (Sep. 3), but approximately twenty minutes before the deadly accident, the 21-year-old sent out a tweet that could have saved his life if someone had intervened.“
Intervened? How exactly–by driving around, calling him as an attempt to talk some since into him? Hey, here’s a novel idea, how about not drinking and driving? Seriously–how fucking stupid, in this day and age, do you have to be to realize that alcohol consumption and driving do not mix? Is this article saying that this horrible accident was not the driver’s fault? Does the author of the article, Charley Rogulewski, even follow and understand Twitter? If he did, then he’d know that most Tweets are bullshit, and only capture the attention of the reader for about a nanosecond–unless it’s porn, of course. Is the po-po supposed to monitor Twitter like a hawk? Think about it–If the cops were monitoring Twitter for possible criminal and life-threatening Tweets, crime outside of the Twitterverse would be out of control.
This crappy crap pisses me off.
Or, is this an instance where social media failed too?
mccrabass 
He wasn’t the driver.
but he was in the car with a drunk driver. STOOPID.
Tlk what you no. 5 mothers lost a child let them r.i.p if you read the story you would see that the police said and confirmed that Ervin was NOT behind the wheel.
I do ‘tlk what i no’. I ‘no’ that five mothers lost their children because of their children’s stupidity–and it is very sad. But they were drunk and they should have known better.Turns out he was behind the wheel and he ran a red light at a high speed.
That makes him a huge idiot.
Did these kids never step into a school or a church or FUCK…WATCH TEE VEE where viewers are constantly bombarded with “don’t drink and drive” messages?
I read stories like this to remind myself how happy I am not to have kids. I can’t imagine the pain/rage/sadness I’d bear after burying offspring that perished like these kids did.
Full disclosure: we HAD kids, once, but the cats were allergic so we got rid of them.
I can’t imagine it either. It’s horrible. But, so much for teaching your kids not to drink and drive. Dumb dumb dumb.
The shark is officially jumped when situations like this boil down to a “failure of society”. Nobody accepts accountability for anything anymore.
yep and the reporter shoulda couched it differently: Perhaps this death could have been prevented had someone taken away his drink, keys and car battery.
This does boggle the mind.
it really does.