Teen Girl jumps out of car as her mom is driving down the highway. As a parent I can easily imagine the hell the mom is going through. That poor lady will relive that moment for the rest of her life. I guess the teen wanted to hurt her mom as much as possible.
I’m puzzled how she got hit by on coming traffic? She should have hit the shoulder of the road. :dubious: With luck, no cars would have hit her there. She might have even survived.
Yes, somehow she was in the middle of the road and not the roadside shoulder. U.S. 285 near Kipling Street in case any of our Dopers are from that area.
I imagine all the drivers involved will have nightmares for awhile. Such a shame to see someone end their life like that.
Neither article says anything about “oncoming” traffic. The boy that hit her was in the right lane, the mom was in the left lane, both traveling the same direction.
I believe that stretch of 285 has a concrete median in between the north- and south-bound lanes, so I assumed that she was hit by a car traveling in the same direction as her mom’s car.
having exited a van that was moving at a crawl I can assure you she did not stand a chance if the car was on the highway. I have expect that the girl thought she would roll on the grass like they do in the movies when jumping from trains.
My experiment in stupid was something I did as a teenager as a lark. It was snowing and I thought I would slide a few feet. That did not happen.
I instantly thought of the movie 'night, Mother. Sissy Spacek tells her mom she’ll die that night. Anne Bancroft spends the entire movie trying to change her mind. Anne Bancroft’s anguish when the girl kills herself still gives me chills. Anne Bancroft got a Golden Globe nomination for that performance.
I can almost see that intersection out my bedroom window… just out of sight to the west. It depends on where exactly they were. 285 has a solid barrier, a wire “barrier,” and a grass median without any barrier at all, all within a mile of Kipling. Depending on the exact spot, crossing the median might not be at all difficult. But I agree, according to the Denver Post article, it sounds like it was in the same direction. They were westbound* going toward Bailey and got hit by westbound traffic. Not sure what what is meant by the “middle” lane (there are only two westbound lanes along that stretch), presumably the inside lane.
How horrific for the family. I can only imagine what they must be going through. My heart goes out to them.
*For any who are not familiar with the road, it is a North/South highway, but for the 100 odd miles closest to Denver it runs East/West. So locals would call it westbound. But the signs label it southbound.
I had a friend who jumped out of her mom’s car not once, but twice when she was a teenager. She reminded me a bit of the Brenda character from Six Feet Under. She was very intelligent, but also a little messed up. Her mom was a psychologist and a huge hippy (they went to a lot of Rainbow Family gatherings and her mom was a Wiccan too). There was something about an overly permissive mom who was also very judgmental at the same time and tried to use guilt instead of punishment that drove my friend crazy enough to jump out of the minivan. They lived out in the country and she only had minor scrapes and scratches.
It’s possible that the teenager didn’t even think of that (teens are … dumb, remember?) and was simply thinking of herself and of ending her own pain. People who kill themselves aren’t exactly in the best state of mind to consider all angles and possibilities. My mother nearly drove me to suicide several times when I was growing up, so perhaps I simply have a different perspective than you.
I’m betting the girl didn’t really think she’d die. When people jump out of moving cars in movies, they always seem just to roll out of them harmlessly. I’m betting the girl thought in the forefront of her mind, “Yeah, you just see what I’m about to do, bitch!” but really did not imagine what was going to happen.
Intense emotions in the wrong body, at the wrong time = shit like this
I remember once, I was about 5 or 6 years old, my mother was in the driver’s sear, yelling and screaming at me for some reason (or no reason… there didn’t always have to BE a reason), and I remember thinking, “I’m just gonna leave!” I opened the passenger door and stuck my foot out. 45 years later, I can still remember my little red and black cowboy boot hovering over the pavement rushing beneath it. Mom grabbed me by the back of the shirt and hauled me back in the car, then pulled over and beat the hell out of me.
this was my original thought as well and considering she was planning on moving away shortly the knowledge of that would presumably lessen the conflict. There’s a good chance this was a case of drama queen meets pavement at 65 mph.
It’s sad no matter the reason but to lose a child like that for no good reason beyond a really poor choice…