<p>Rest in peace</p>
<p>Not sure why this isn't in the Carletonian online.....there should be some sort of article.</p>
<p>Minnesota's roads aren't safe in the winter.....</p>
<p>The latest issue of the Carletonian is dated February 28 (I think), which would have been put to bed before the accident, which took place around 3pm last Friday February 28. There has been plenty of information communicated to the Carleton community about this tragedy, both by email and by postings on the Carleton website:</p>
<p><a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/president/news/?story_id=1109122”>http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/president/news/?story_id=1109122</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/news/news/?story_id=1109074”>http://apps.carleton.edu/news/news/?story_id=1109074</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/communications/campus/?story_id=1109781”>http://apps.carleton.edu/communications/campus/?story_id=1109781</a></p>
<p>It is surely exaggeration to say that Minnesota’s roads aren’t safe in the winter. No road in any state that is icy in the middle of a snow squall is safe. And the conditions that afternoon in Northfield are thankfully not continuously present, even in winter. But dangerous road conditions like this can occur in almost any state, though they are more common in the northern states. We all need to take the road conditions into account when traveling.</p>
<p>I didn’t expect somebody to take issue at my comments about Minnesota’s roads. It was a sincere comment. I’m not the first to warn about southern Minnesota’s roads. Perhaps I need to clarify…</p>
<p>70% of fatalities happen on Minnesota’s rural roads.</p>
<p><a href=“Rural Driving - Rural Driving”>ShieldSquare Captcha;
<p>The issue is you have icy conditions, heavy truck traffic, two lane roads, sudden curves in the road, hard to see intersections and no medians between lanes. While I don’t think there have been articles written Highway 3 where this crash occurred, 30 minutes south of Northfield numerous articles have been written about Highway 14 for the same reasons.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.startribune.com/local/12549511.html”>http://www.startribune.com/local/12549511.html</a></p>
<p>From my experience, I don’t think there is an exaggeration to give a warning on Southern Minnesota’s rural roads. They are worse than in cities and worse than other states. I hate to see something like this happen.</p>
<p>If you had said something like “Rural highways in Minnesota can be particularly dangerous in icy conditions” I don’t think I would have commented on that. But I don’t want students or parents to think that for 90 days per year there are no safe roads in Minnesota. I’d hate for someone to not consider going to a school in Minnesota for fear that they’d be taking their life in their hands any time they ventured on any road from December 21 to March 21.</p>
<p>I found Highway 19 off of exit 69 from I35 to be relatively safe during winter. As for the other roads into Northfield…</p>
<p>Is it that terrible to say “you may be taking your life into your own hands”?</p>
<p>Yes, there was an horrific accident and the Carleton community lost three wonderful young men. Yes, it is a terrible awful agonizing tragedy. Yes, the roads in MN are often bad. This winter they were bad and even impossible to drive on in many states, almost every state in the entire country. My kid is a Carl as Carleton students are known and has his car there. He driven many times this winter and last without incident so to assume that Carleton students are at greater risk of death because of its location is a false and invalid argument. That said, I have encountered in the last week the most incredible outpouring of love support and concern for the Carleton community from my fellow Carl parents and the greater Carleton population all over the world. This community is unique in many ways but I never realized why. I have kids at other small schools and I cannot imagine those parents working together this way with the administration to bring flowers and notes of support to every single student, lodging, transport and meals for students attending the funerals, and supporting one another with heartfelt deep emotional responses through a parent list serv. I am sorry I had to learn how marvelous Carleton is beyond its outstanding academics through this tragic event but I am prouder than ever to call myself a Carl parent. This community is a rare thing. To be part of it is to be blessed in so many ways. Every parent wishes their children will have fulfilling joyous challenging and meaningful educational experiences in college. If you are lucky enough to send a kid to Carleton you will likely have that wish granted.</p>
<p>As we Quakers say “that Friend speaks my mind.”</p>
<p>Another Carleton mom grateful for the community. I always have recommended the school to others, but my regard has hit a whole other level after the events of the past week. </p>
<p>The essence of Carleton can be found here: <a href=“http://m.southernminn.com/mobile/northfield_news/news/article_88b6548b-d7ee-5e68-b789-daef9645c75f.html”>http://m.southernminn.com/mobile/northfield_news/news/article_88b6548b-d7ee-5e68-b789-daef9645c75f.html</a></p>
<p>Agree wholeheartedly with stcoprmater. Jack63, believe me, the Carletonian more than covered this tragedy this week (and just FYI – you’re coming off as a bit insensitive with your word choice. It feels like you’re saying that it’s our fault for driving in the winter, regardless of whatever your intentions may be. Yes, it’s dangerous to drive in the winter, but it’s easily as dangerous to drive anywhere else where there’s snow. That being said, Will (the driver) was doing his friends a huge favor by driving them to the airport for their tournament in California. Please do not say “you may be taking your life into your own hands” as that’s incredibly inappropriate right now).</p>
<p>Current proud Carl here. Thank you so much, parents and alumni, for sending all of us flowers this past Friday. It was heartbreaking, breathtaking, and completely gorgeous all at the same time. Shout-out to the Oles across the river as well, as they also sent us all flowers later the same day. Words cannot describe the amazing amount of support we’ve all received this past week (and will receive for the rest of the term and beyond) and we are so, so grateful for all of you.</p>
<p>So to everyone – thanks again <3. To any current Carls reading this – good luck on finals and have a well-deserved spring break!</p>
<p>The roads were pretty bad in Michigan too. God bless. </p>
<p>The flowers in the mailboxes were a great tribute. I’m sure the Carletonian will do a good job covering this next week. </p>
<p>I didn’t mean for my words to come off as insensitive. I regret that they did. I made a off-hand comment about the roads that absolutely in no way meant to come across as “it was their fault to drive”. My original post was meant to be a tribute…that’s all. </p>
<p>I’ve known people who have died or faced horrible injuries driving in Minnesota, including a Carleton Professor driving in Minnesota. It’s not their fault. I never intended for my words to come across that way as if it was their fault. People may not be aware of the rural road conditions in Minnesota. It was a warning made in good faith with absolutely no intention to blame the victims. I thought the warning was appropriate. I comes from the fact that I genuinely don’t want these things to happen.</p>
<p>By the way…</p>
<p>When I was younger I totaled my car and another car on a rural highway in icy conditions by an intersection going about 60 mph. It was in northern Iowa. I didn’t make any different type of decisions to drive than these three young men did, so I’m no different…in fact, they were likely more careful than I was. I was lucky nobody was hurt. I still think about it…quite a lot. </p>
<p>I just didn’t know not to drive or what to watch out for with that incident. That is where my warnings come from…certainly not some effort to blame.</p>
<p>The March 7 issue of the Carletonian has several articles about the tragedy.</p>
<p><a href=“The Carletonian”>https://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/</a></p>