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A 25-year-old woman, not a student, plowed her car into a crowd of people watching the Oklahoma State homecoming parade in Stillwater this morning. Three people are dead, 8 more are in critical condition, 7 in serious condition, and dozens more have been treated for lesser injuries. According to local news reports, the woman first hit a police motorcycle before turning into the crowd, which was faced away from the direction she was coming.

I heard about this on TV. Ironically, it's homecoming at Western Michigan University this weekend. They just opened a new alumni center yesterday. They restored the original building that the school started in way back in 1903.

Kazoo65 wrote:I heard about this on TV. Ironically, it's homecoming at Western Michigan University this weekend. They just opened a new alumni center yesterday. They restored the original building that the school started in way back in 1903.

It's homecoming at the University of Oklahoma, too. I think mid-to-late October is popular for homecoming at a good many colleges and universities, as it's not too close to the start of the semester and a decent amount of time before Thanksgiving holidays begin.

Terrible, terrible thing. Praying for everyone affected.


kay

silvercamaro wrote:

Kazoo65 wrote:I heard about this on TV. Ironically, it's homecoming at Western Michigan University this weekend. They just opened a new alumni center yesterday. They restored the original building that the school started in way back in 1903.

It's homecoming at the University of Oklahoma, too. I think mid-to-late October is popular for homecoming at a good many colleges and universities, as it's not too close to the start of the semester and a decent amount of time before Thanksgiving holidays begin.

Homecoming here at UA too.

silvercamaro wrote:A 25-year-old woman, not a student, plowed her car into a crowd of people watching the Oklahoma State homecoming parade in Stillwater this morning. Three people are dead, 8 more are in critical condition, 7 in serious condition, and dozens more have been treated for lesser injuries. According to local news reports, the woman first hit a police motorcycle before turning into the crowd, which was faced away from the direction she was coming.

Damn! Any word on the mental status of the driver?

Bob Juch wrote:

silvercamaro wrote:A 25-year-old woman, not a student, plowed her car into a crowd of people watching the Oklahoma State homecoming parade in Stillwater this morning. Three people are dead, 8 more are in critical condition, 7 in serious condition, and dozens more have been treated for lesser injuries. According to local news reports, the woman first hit a police motorcycle before turning into the crowd, which was faced away from the direction she was coming.

Damn! Any word on the mental status of the driver?

I read she was arrested for DUI.

A 4th victim has now died.

I'm so sorry, SC.

This is awful. If she was DUI, it probably wasn't deliberate, but IMHO it was murder nonetheless. I hope she goes to jail for the rest of her life.

It's horrible.

Kazoo65 wrote:I heard about this on TV. Ironically, it's homecoming at Western Michigan University this weekend. They just opened a new alumni center yesterday. They restored the original building that the school started in way back in 1903.

What is ironic here and what does it have to do with the deaths at OSU?

BackInTex wrote:A 4th victim has now died.

Sadly, it was a 2-year-old child. Four more very young victims remain in Children's Hospital at the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.

When news helicopters flew over the scene, several abandoned strollers were visible in the intersection. My reaction was to start hoping that the parents had grabbed their little ones and carried them to safety. . . but perhaps they never had a chance to do that.

BackInTex wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: Damn! Any word on the mental status of the driver?

I read she was arrested for DUI.

She was arrested on a DUI charge, and a blood test was administered to see if that charge will stick or whether alcohol or drugs were the source of her impairment. According to an early new report, she told police that she had experienced a seizure. The police, of course, are checking for many possibilities, including trying to figure out if she had an earlier fight with a boyfriend, problems at work, or other kinds of personal problems that might have left her angry enough to want to hurt innocent people.

Bob Juch wrote:

silvercamaro wrote:

Kazoo65 wrote:I heard about this on TV. Ironically, it's homecoming at Western Michigan University this weekend. They just opened a new alumni center yesterday. They restored the original building that the school started in way back in 1903.

It's homecoming at the University of Oklahoma, too. I think mid-to-late October is popular for homecoming at a good many colleges and universities, as it's not too close to the start of the semester and a decent amount of time before Thanksgiving holidays begin.

Homecoming here at UA too.

Which has nothing to do with the deaths at OSU.

]I heard about this on TV. Ironically, it's homecoming at Western Michigan University this weekend. They just opened a new alumni center yesterday. They restored the original building that the school started in way back in 1903.

It's homecoming at the University of Oklahoma, too. I think mid-to-late October is popular for homecoming at a good many colleges and universities, as it's not too close to the start of the semester and a decent amount of time before Thanksgiving holidays

Before you take umbrage, I'm assuming that some peeps were discussing homecoming in general because Kazoo didn't realize the actual import of the post. I'm sure you did. No one cares about other homecomings right now.

Can't embed quotes

This was in response to Bob J.

Must mea culpa. Can't fault peeps for responding to clueless other peeps, trying to be polite, even when it has nothing to do with the tragedy at hand.

I think Kazoo was identifying with the event by linking it to something that was true for her also. It's a framing device that sometimes seems more self-referential than she intends.

Empathy takes many shapes.

Not that this accident wouldn't have been tragic at any time, but Homecoming is a special time at many colleges when alumni who aren't regular fans of the football teams make what are sometimes once-in-a-lifetime returns to their alma mater to renew their ties to the past and see what's changed. Sadly, this event is what they will take away with them. From what I read, the accident happened about three blocks from the stadium, and a lot of people walking to the game had to pass by the scene where there was still a good bit of wreckage. It was homecoming at Tech yesterday and we had our Ramblin Wreck parade, and it could just as easily have happened here or any of the other dozens of schools that had homecoming yesterday.

Our sympathies go out to the victims, the families, and everyone affected.

The little boy who lost his life was a beautiful, beautiful child. There's a GoFundMe account for him (and, I imagine, a number of other victims, although his is the only one I've seen so far). So tragic.