None of this is normal

On March 18, anoth­er child, James Galante died. In the days and weeks since, Mar­ble­head has read from the famil­iar script used by com­mu­ni­ties across the nation fol­low­ing a dead­ly traf­fic crash involv­ing a young per­son. Offi­cials speak of a ​“trag­ic acci­dent,” a can­dle­light vig­il is held, flow­ers and rib­bons mark the site. Signs bear­ing the child’s sports jer­sey are raised; por­traits of the deceased are hung. The fam­i­ly is sup­port­ed and com­fort­ed even though the pain will nev­er heal.

Twelve years ago, we did the same for fif­teen year-old gym­nast and ris­ing fresh­man Allie Cast­ner. We held the vig­ils, wrapped rib­bons and placed flow­ers and stuffed toys at the site, put ​“Slow Down for Allie” signs in our yards and stick­ers on our cars. We sup­port­ed and com­fort­ed the Cast­ner family.

What we did­n’t do is fix the road and the inter­sec­tion that killed her (she was in a cross­walk and inves­ti­ga­tors declared the dri­ver not at fault).

Fol­low­ing this lat­est so-called ​“acci­dent,” the Boston Globe, quot­ed James’ father Jim Galante say­ing that ​“his son would be alive if the cause­way had a rail­ing or a high­er wall on the har­bor side.” That may or may not be the right treat­ment, but the diag­no­sis he offers is stark and compelling.

We can memo­ri­al­ize James with vig­ils and mark­ers, but town offi­cials need to hon­or his mem­o­ry by address­ing the road that killed him immediately.

Elect­ed town offi­cials can go fur­ther by cre­at­ing the orga­ni­za­tion­al infra­struc­ture to receive and respond to res­i­dents’ fears and con­cerns, by ask­ing prob­ing ques­tions before let­ting the tech­nocrats loose, and by mak­ing street traf­fic con­trol their num­ber one pri­or­i­ty. All of this begins by admit­ting that none of this is nor­mal. Chil­dren are at greater risk of dying in a motor vehi­cle crash than they are at risk of being killed by covid or a school shoot­er. That’s not normal.

It is not nor­mal for par­ents to dri­ve their kids to school because they feel it is unsafe to let them walk. It’s not nor­mal for vehi­cles to trav­el at 30 and 40 and 45 miles an hour on town roads. It is not nor­mal to treat road injuries and deaths as acci­dents. They are crash­es. They can be ana­lyzed and prevented.