The teenage driver of the car that actually ran over Julia was heard to say, according to a witness at the scene, "It's all my fault!"
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IN upscale Brentwood, Harvard-Westlake Middle School student Julia Siegler, 13, died after being struck by two cars while in the street against the red light to catch her school bus.
In a split second, going against what we parents pound into our kids' heads from the time they are old enough to know their colors - red means stop, green means go - Julia was gone.
What a tragedy: Julia's full life never realized; Julia's classmates on the bus traumatized; Julia's mother, having walked her daughter to the bus, witnessing from the corner of that intersection what no parent is prepared to handle; the drivers of the two cars wondering if they could have prevented the young girl's death.
Early in the investigation the accident was thought to be a hit-and-run. But both drivers did stop and later that evening, when the news kept announcing hit-and-run, they went to police headquarters and were not held.
How many parents have been spared this pain, simply, I suppose, because our kid's number wasn't on the call-in sheet just yet?
A lot of us have watched our offspring dash from across the street to our own car when we're at the school or elsewhere to pick them up.
How many times, when driving down the street, have we made the brakes screech when some spry young body darts from out of nowhere right in front of our vehicle?
Yup, while stopped there in the middle of the street, I've put the window down and shouted gross obscenities at the errant youngster who had no regard for life, theirs or mine.
Not a pleasant thought to think of a body that wasn't quick enough or driver reaction that was possibly too slow.
The teenage driver of the car that actually ran over Julia was heard to say, according to a witness at the scene, "It's all my fault!"
Yes, some folks are blaming the drivers, claiming that pedestrians always have the right of way.
Others, while reluctant to say so in front of too many people, blame Julia for putting herself in harm's way. And still others raise the question of why the mother didn't stop Julia.
But neither blame or questions should be part of this scenario, because we all know that but for the grace of God it could have been our very own kid making a deadly decision.
When I discussed this tragedy with my own teenager while reminding her of my constant lectures about her own Jaywalking behavior, she confessed that she had mended her ways due to almost being struck by a car while dashing across Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena to catch an MTA bus.
Have you had the jaywalking discussion lately with your kids? I mean yesterday, or today, and don't forget about tomorrow? Don't be squeamish. Your kids need to know of Julia Siegler, and of all who are left behind to mourn.
