An accident on Glendale Road involving two Marietta High School students last week could have easily been deadly.
There was great potential for the car's teenage passenger and driver to be hurt as the car flipped and hit a pole. There was also great potential for injury as power lines then fell on another driver's car and a power surge started a fire in a nearby home.
The boy behind the wheel made poor decisions of an immature driver, admittedly going at least 60 mph where the speed limit is 35, and was lucky.
We hope he learned an important lesson and realizes speeding isn't worth the great human and financial loss that can come along with it.
This week, the high school's principal, Bill Lee, gathered students for an assembly and talked to them about the accident and making good choices. We commend those at the school for seizing the opportunity to use a real-life example to drive home a crucial point.
But we hope it doesn't stop there.
Parents should also grasp these kind of opportunities to talk to their children. They should set specific rules for their teens who do drive and do their best to ensure they're being followed.
This teen could easily have followed in the footsteps of another teen driver and high school student who earlier this year in the eastern part of the county drove too fast. He ended up killing the driver of another car, injuring her young grandson and later being indicted on reckless homicide charges.
We don't want any of our youth to have to live with that for the rest of their lives, or to cause death or injury to themselves or anyone else.
This week, school officials stepped in with that message, so let's all follow their lead.
