An Almost Tragedy

My town made the big city news today. As a small little burb JUST outside of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, we rarely make any sort of news reel. When we have, it's not been for anything positive.

Shortly after 3 pm the power flickered at my house. While rare, it's happened on a couple of occasions and for no apparent reason. I didn't give it much thought until siren after siren wailed past by my subdivision. Followed not too far behind them - the news helicopters. Until then, I had no idea that less than a mile from my home, a serious accident had taken place; An accident that could have been so much worse. Today, a school bus carrying the high school and middle school kids from my subdivision crashed into a guard rail, hit a small culvert and then sheered a hydro pole with the pole coming to rest on top of the bus.

According to the news and the co-workers of Coach and Mrs. Coach, none of the kids had life threatening injuries. The accident is still under investigation and helicopters can still be heard flying around the scene. But as we've heard it, everyone is going to be just fine. Like I said, it could have been much worse.

In a town that is coming close to having 10,000 people living in it, we as a small community are struggling to catch up with the demand that the rapid influx of people has put on our town's infrastructure. Four years ago, this place had just 1,200 people living here. We have one major intersection, one traffic light and busy busy roads that aren't worth a crap. The road that the bus had the accident on is scheduled to be widened to a 4 lane road by the end of 2012. If you ask me, it won't be soon enough. The particular section of road where the bus hit the guard rail is of major concern, even for someone like me who drives a mid-size vehicle. It's narrow, the speed limit is 55 mph and people are always pulling out in front of other cars from the stores a few yards from the bridge. To be perfectly honest with you, I'm surprised there hasn't been more accidents at that spot in the past.

I'm almost certain that we'll find ourselves on the news tomorrow once more, but I have the feeling that we'll slip into the oblivion just as fast as we blipped on the news "radar". And that suits me just fine I suppose. At least it means everything is status quo and I for one like that.