Heart breaking. There are so many things wrong with this accident. Why were such young children out at that time of the night?
I pray for all the family and friends of these children. What a tragedy.

Sometimes kids sneak out unbeknownst to the parents, and do stupid things, so I won't be too quick to judge the parents. Their heartbreak is enough to suffer. As for the driver, his life as he knew it has ended. What a thing to have to live with. So, so sad.

How sad. My guess would be that the parents didn't agree to a 2 am curfew and an unlicensed driver. More likely they were told 10 pm and given the name of a responsible older driver, maybe a sibling.

Teens are notorious for leaving out details that parents wouldn't like, even good, trustworthy kids. There's only so much a parent can verify without going themselves or never letting their kids go anywhere. Also a lot of parents are in denial about their kids and would swear up and down that they would never lie or sneak out so they don't really do much other than ask.

I was a "good" teen not all that long ago and I still like to shock my family with the things I did and lied about that they had no idea. It all turned out okay for me but at that age, kids feel invincible and it's not a big deal to stretch the truth in order to do what they want, especially with peer pressure involved.

Ugh. So terrible.

Here is a link that might be useful: News Story

Yes, why were these kids out at 2 AM? Why do parents not know who their kids are with and where they are. I'm sorry for the loss of 4 young lives, but in cases like this, I blame the parents.

It just makes me sad that on top of the unbelievable loss of their child, these parents have to deal with all of the judgement from people who blame them for their child's death without having all of the facts.

There is absolutely nothing to indicate at this point that the parents allowed this to happen. How do you prevent a teen from lying about who they are going with, where they are going and when they will be home? Absolutely nothing. You have to hope they are telling you the truth or just never let them out of the house.

And yes even the trustworthy ones lie. When I was a teen I was always in charge of asking my friends parents if we could go out since I was the "good influence" and they were more likely to believe me when I would stretch the truth. We never were caught but sadly it only takes once to have terrible consequences.

Put the blame where it belongs - with the kids. Do you really think that the parents told their children that it was ok to go driving at 2 am with an unlicensed driver! They were not wearing seat belts and who knows why they were at or returning from the scary farm.

It was not that long ago that I was trying to teach my boys to be careful when they were out, asking them who they were out with, where were they going, and giving them a curfew. Does not mean they were necessarily telling me the truth, perhaps at the beginning of the evening they were, but by the end of the evening who knows what transpired and why. Good kids can make bad decisions - just like adults.

My heart breaks for the families involved. So sad,
Mary

That's awful. I bet the driver wishes he had been killed, too, or instead of the passengers. Just a horrible tragedy.

Of all the rotten things I ever did as a kid, reckless driving wasn't one of them. Having a brother nearly killed in a car accident when I was kid left a lasting impression on me and if anyone I was with started driving crazy, I made them stop, because I was so scared. Luckily for me, that only happened once and I stopped hanging out with him.

I feel so bad for all 6 families, this is just terrible.

I guess it's wrong to point a finger at the parents. When these things happen, we seek someone to blame. The driver has a tough time ahead. No word this morning on how he's doing.

Will someone list the legitimate reasons to license teens to drive or let them have access to car keys? They maim and kill themselves and others at a rate far higher than the "Senile old f@rts" pilloried in the media.

Disasters like this one are nothing new. When I was a junior in HS the high achieving vice-president of our class sped his family car into an abutment on an expressway, killing one of the passengers in the car. I'd known most of the boys in the car since kindergarten.

I cringe to remember that I 'tested' my sports car up to 100 MPH on a winding road through a nearby forest preserve! (No passengers.)

Kids' brains are not 'all there' regarding impulse control until at least age 21.

In California, people under 18 are issued PROVISIONAL licenses. They are allowed to drive ALONE. Further, the California DMV's California Driver Handbook says:

"During the first 12 months after you are licensed, you cannot drive between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and you cannot transport passengers under 20 years of age, unless you are accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian, a licensed driver 25 years of age or older, or a licensed or certified driving instructor." (emphasis in original)

So, I can't help but think that the passengers didn't tell their parents who would be driving, and that the driver didn't tell his parents that he would have passengers. And, I would also think that the driver's parents expected him home a whole lot earlier.

No matter what, though, it's a horribly sad situation.

As I mentioned above, there are so many things wrong with this accident, but yes, things like this happen and will continue to happen. The law can put restrictions on young drivers as mentioned by Lindsey, and in the article linked below, but that doesn't mean they are always followed.

Even though the young driver was disobeying the law in a number of ways, I'm sure he never gave a thought to how those actions could kill his friends. He was more than likely hyped up with adrenaline after being at the scary halloween park. I can vision them all happy and laughing together until the accident happened. He may not of even given a thought to his speed at all. It may have just happened because of his cheerful mood, enjoying time with his friends.

Heck, I've even caught myself speeding while listening to the radio when a good faster beat song comes on. This young man, will more than likely blame himself, more than anyone else, about the loss of his friends. There isn't one of us that can look back and not see we've misjudged something because our mind was not on what we were doing, as we should have been, whether driving or something else. There were no signs of drugs or alcohol found, so this was more than likely just an accident. He lost control, and in his youthful inexperience, he more than likely over reacted. Period.

Here is a link that might be useful: Latest news article from same site as above.

...and the access to car keys part of allowing teens to drive?

"...and the access to car keys part of allowing teens to drive?"

ChiSue, I used to work with a woman who was divorced, with physical custody of her three daughters. The twins were the oldest, but one of the twins was likely to be up to no good from time to time. The other twin was an angel. The youngest, however, was a living nightmare for her mother. That girl had on several occasions taken her mother's car keys without the mom's knowledge, much less consent, and gone on joyrides with her friends.

Just because a teenager has the car keys doesn't mean that teenager has permission to have them.

I agree. Just because they were out means they had permission to do what they were doing.

Secure the keys. Of course kids find ways around this but you TRY.

Do you think, "I didn't know," will wash with your insurance company or when you are sued?

I'm certainly not arguing that kids DO these things. I saying parents need to act like parents. One of my DS's best friends wasn't allowed to drive until after he was 18. His parents said they couldn't afford the insurance, which was possibly true, but the point is...the boy didn't drive until he was 18.

"...the boy didn't drive until he was 18." Are you sure? Just asking.

Most of us in the teen/college years made stupid choices and bad decisions....we were just lucky no one got hurt. This isn't the first teenage driving accident and it won't be the last. Fortunately, most teens do make it into their 20's and beyond without incident.

We don't know anything about the parents....they could all be flakes who didn't care where their kids were...or they could have all been on the phone at 11pm calling their kids' friends trying to find them...or a combination of both.

It's a tragedy all the way around and has changed all their lives forever. So incredibly sad.

Or they could have been away and left the older kids in charge on their own and the extra car. That happens a lot around here.

That brought back some bad memories of my highschool days. We lived on a farm 10 miles from town. My folks came home from the weekly shopping trip and Mom was very shaken. They had witnessed a deadly accident right before their faces. It involved highschool classmates of mine. Four of my classmates were barreling down the highway and my folks were waiting behind a car at the stop sign waiting to cross this highway when the first waiting car truned right onto the highway in front of my classmates. The driver decided to pass the offender, stepped on the gas, and entered the left lane only to meet head-on an oncoming auto. All 3 occupants of the oncoming car were killed. My 4 classmates were badly mangled and the driver barely survived. This happened in an instant in the intersection where my parents were waiting to cross the highway.

That was in about 1953. Now it is 2014 and bad traffic decisions have not changed.

Joanie -- I am as certain as a non-family member can be that he didn't drive. This was one of my DS's two best friends from grammar school. He wouldn't have done anything to damage the trust within his very close and caring family. He appreciated the sacrifices they made to allow him to attend the best schools. He was a 'straight arrow' kid. They are *why* he was a straight arrow.

(This is the young man who died last year of a cerebral hemorrhage while being treated for headaches, leaving a wife and two children. He was a psychologist, specializing in adolescents.)

There is no rational reason to award unlimited driving privileges to *children* whose brains have yet to mature. They only look like adults!

JemDandy, I would imagine almost every class throughout the years in most cities, and often small towns have stories of accidents involving teens. It's a fact of life. I could name a few myself over the years myself.