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Formula for
tragedy
No newspaper can chastise those whom the
fortunes of life and death have already punished.
Nothing can be worse than for Nathan Corbin to carry with him all his life that he was at the wheel in the accident which killed his younger brother. For the Corbin boys’ parents, a shadow has come over their lives that will never be dispelled.
Nevertheless, Dylan Corbin’s death at the dawn of an auspicious young life troubles the soul. Could it have been prevented? What moment on that late December night could events have gone differently?
On Saturday the Commonwealth of Virginia charged Nathan and five other youngsters with possessing alcohol under the age of 21, the legal drinking age in Virginia.
Three other youngsters under 18 were charged as juveniles. The State Police investigation found that 22 youngsters had gathered at a house near Woodville for a party that began at 9 p.m. The home belonged to the mother of one of the youngsters, but she was out of town. The young woman, who lived with her father across the county, was in the home without a chaperone.
Though the ages of the guests ranged as high as 28, there was no parent there, no figure of authority who might have kept the night from going wrong.
Without a parent, the beer, vodka and tequila brought to the party flowed freely to adults and children alike. The party went on all night. In the end, Dylan’s life was forfeited in an automobile crash.
Capt. Jeff Brown, the D.A.R.E. officer in Rappahannock County and other law enforcement officers will tell you that the most abused drug here is alcohol. He and other lawmen know that when a bunch of teens get together there is likely to be drinking.
But the parents of these young people, most of whom were under 21, let them go by car to a party in a house without a chaperone where they might expect liquor was available.
These youngsters are on the cusp of adulthood, but they are still youngsters and an unchaperoned party with liquor on a country road is a formula for tragedy.
Don’t parents have a moral obligation to know where their children are going and what they are doing? Just think if parents had persisted in asking, “What are you going to be doing there” or called the girl’s mother and discovered she was away, it might have changed the course of events.
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