Tragedy leads to more
attention of new law

What are the lessons to be learned from a tragedy that leaves four people dead and a community in mourning?

It is truly difficult to find answers or comfort when considering the events of July 23, a night when two cars came together on Bowman Road in Jack-son and forever changed people’s lives.

As Patrick Mackin of the Jackson Police Department’s Traffic and Safety Unit put it, "It could have been any one of us out on that road that night."

Indeed it could have been, for communities are built on people who are simply going from one place to another, never knowing when tragedy will strike.

That evening it was two cars — one driven by Matthew Kerns, 17, of Jackson, and the other driven by Thomas Patock, 57, also of Jackson — that came together on a rain-slicked road.

Police believe Kerns was driving east on Bowman Road near the intersection with Don Connor Boulevard when he lost control of his 1998 Acura Integra on the wet road. His vehicle crossed the center line and was struck broadside by a westbound 1997 Toyota Corolla being driven by Patock.

Police are continuing to investigate if Kerns’ loss of vehicle control was the result of high speeds or wet road conditions.

Regardless of the outcome of that investigation, Kerns will be charged with violating New Jer-sey’s graduated driver’s license law that allows for only one other non-family member to ride with a first-year, 17-year-old driver.

At the time of the accident, Kerns had three friends in his car — Jason DaSilva, 14, Raymond DeMaio III, 15, and Steven Mandaro, 14, — and they were all killed. Dorothy Patock, 58, the wife of Thomas Patock, was also killed in the crash.

If new drivers and their parents were not aware before this accident of the law that limits the number of passengers a 17-year-old may drive, they certainly are now. Unfortunately, as in many instances that serve to highlight an existing law or lead to the implementation of a new law, a tragedy occurred that brings this to the front page.

There is no satisfaction in knowing that more attention will now be paid to the regulations.