There is a lesson to be learned from the crash that killed Fred Boettner: Racing cars on city streets is terrible crime that deserves swift and severe punishment.
Two teenagers pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide this week in the February 2007 accident that killed Boettner.
The accident was the direct result of a “race” between 18-year-old Ryan J. Franks and 17-year-old Vitaliy Sushch, two Meridian High School students who took off from school one morning in a race down Meridian Street that officials say topped 90 miles an hour.
Police say Sushch’s car was traveling at 93 miles an hour when it collided with a pickup truck on Meridian in front of the Costco store. The speed limit there is 35 mph. Boettner was a passenger in the pickup when Sushch collided with it. Boettner died at the scene of the crash.
Both teens were sentenced earlier this week — Sushch to two years in prison, Franks to two years and two months. Franks’ sentence was longer because he had a worse driving record before the accident, including a negligent driving citation.
Some in the community complain that the sentences seem light considering Boettner’s death. We only know that the sentences are right by state sentencing standards for such a crime. Judge Ira Uhrig had little leeway and certainly could not have sentenced the teens to the decades in prison that some in the community are calling for. The sentencing guidelines for vehicular homicide are far different from those for murder.
Franks took responsibility for his actions in his comments at the sentencing, saying, among other things, “Even though I didn’t hit the truck in which Mr. Boettner was seated, I was wrong by not slowing down and not ending the nonsense sooner.”
Franks is wrong in that respect. His failure wasn’t that he didn’t end the street race soon enough, but that he engaged in it at all. The same is true for Sushch.
It’s important to note that our youth are bombarded with entertainment that makes street racing seem attractive and harmless. Movies such as “The Fast and the Furious” and video games such as “Need for Speed” show people in street races having the time of their lives. They never die.
Adults know better. Life is not a game with a reset function. And driving a car is a privilege granted by the state and society for transportation, not entertainment.
Hopefully other teens in our community have seen the damage Sushch and Franks have done and will learn from it. That will not ease the pain of the family of Fred Boettner, but at least it’s one possible positive to come from such a senseless tragedy.