November 4, 2002
ENG-101-Darby
Profile
“How do you know you suffer from road rage? You exchange your Uzi with laser sighting for a "more serious weapon (Jokes-Funnies.com).” Driving today is a common occurrence for most people in our age. Something that goes hand-in-hand with driving is road rage. On Route 60 in Ona, WV there is a stretch that has been in the media too often lately. The stretch of road between Cabell Midland High School and Yates Crossing has been the setting for two life taking auto accidents within less than two weeks of each other.
As one looks down the expanse of asphalt it looks just like any other, somewhat gray from the salt and snow, now covered in a kaleidoscope of leaves, and with the vast emptiness of West Virginia rolling mountains to either side. For some who know the road and live around it, we know different. As you look at this road it brings back a memory for some, of a friend, lost early one August morning to road rage. “An 18-year-old Milton woman was killed Thursday morning when her vehicle collided with a pickup truck east of the Yates Crossing intersection on U.S. Route 60 (Arnold Milton Woman).” Friends now the story, Allison was driving home from a party after seeing her boyfriend and her best friend making out. In a rage, she left the party crying and angry. She became a victim of her own rage. Whenever I pass that spot, I think about her and how horrible it must have been dying in that car and what thoughts could have been going through her mind: “I wish I could have told Mom and Dad I love them.” or “What happens now?” and “I thought I had longer!”
For most people, there is a spot here or there where someone you know has wrecked or even died. For the Ronnie Hoover, that spot is at the sign marking Grant Gardens Road. “An Ona woman was killed Sunday (Aug.26) morning when the vehicle in which she was riding was struck head-on along U.S. 60. (Ona Woman…).” On their way to Lighthouse Baptist Church in Milton, Ronnie and Linda Hoover were hit head-on Christopher Handley, who authorities say had a previous record of DUIs and at the of the accident was intoxicated (Arnold Milton Man). That Sunday morning I was on my way to church also, as I came out to the end of my street I saw the accident. There was the Hoover’s car with a white sheet blemished with crimson covering someone in the car, the road also marked in crimson show that life had been taken away from someone all too soon. A family lost a loving mother because of alcohol and road rage, what could it be like for them to pass that fragment of road everyday? To think, “That’s where Mom died”.
It’s sobering for those of us whom live in this area of Route 60 to see someone we know or even someone we don’t killed by road rage. How many people that pass these two unmarked sites and think about those who have, in the blink of an eye, are gone forever? But, can the memory of the two save lives? Could there be a person speeding down the road, angry at the world, and glance over and see one of these spots where in their mind, the Grim Reaper stands along with the person whose life he stole and it remind them how brittle and frail life is?

Bibliography
Jokes-Funnies.com. 4 Nov. 2002.
Arnold, Lee. “Milton Woman Killed In Collision.” The Herald-Dispatch. 16 Aug. 2002. 4
Nov. 2002
“Ona Woman Killed In U.S. 60 Wreck.” The Herald-Dispatch. 26 Aug. 2002. 4 Nov. 2002

Arnold, Lee. “Truck May Have Caused Fatal Ona Crash.” The Herald-Dispatch. 27 Aug.
2002. 4 Nov. 2002
Arnold, Lee. “Milton Man Charged In DUI Death.” The Herald-Dispatch. 17 Oct. 2002. 4
Nov. 2002.