Our local community was shaken up once more this weekend with the tragic accident near Bainbridge which took the life of one local teenager and injured three others.

It is not just the fact that this car accident occurred, but the circumstances surrounding it which have caused consternation. You see, when people learned that the driver and the others involved with the crash may have been consuming alcohol before the early morning crash, they moved quickly from compassion to finger pointing.

To me, this reaction is almost as much of a tragedy as the accident itself. Here we have one life cut short, and the lives of three others (not to mention those of their families, friends and fellow students) which will be irreparably changed because of this event.

Yet instead of showing compassion, people want to place blame wherever they can.

Are there lessons to be learned from this? Of course. Especially as it happened just weeks and months before prom and graduation. It is a horrible reminder of both why people shouldn’t supply alcohol to minors and what can happen if someone who has been drinking gets behind the wheel.