Memorial grows for boys who died in Olympic View Drive crash

At the scene of the fatal crash on Olympic View Drive that the cost the lives of two local teens — Zach Langer and Noah Vires — on July 23, friends and acquaintances have been adding flowers, notes and other items to a growing memorial at the accident site. (Photos by Larry Vogel)

  1. I am so often pained by the tragic loss of young lives that too often happens in the Summer.
    As a Sophomore in High School I lost friends and classmates to needless automobile wrecks due to high speed on winding roads while driving in the dark of night. I lost another friend that errantly decided to make an explosive device out of curiosity. Tom was an all star track and field champion, a star football player and fellow drama club actor. He was also my friend. Never one to get in trouble and highly respected by all his classmates. Tom died on the way to the hospital laying in the back of a friends station wagon while reciting his rosary as his bodily fluid escaped uncontrolled. Tom didn’t die in a high speed auto wreck but he died tempting fate. Just like so many other young people that may feel that they are invincible.
    I know that after every graduation or ensuing Summer the loss of young life will occur and I just think about the terrible waste that may have been avoided.
    I hope that someday we will find a way to ensure that this loss will finally cease.
    I lost my friend Tom, in the Summer of 1958.
    I still cherish our friendship and wonder what might have been had Tom been able to have a life.

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