Teenagers are three times more likely to get into a car accident than that of an adult; even on school grounds, a high school student can get side-swiped.
In the past there have been incidents in the senior parking lot that had led to side swiping or fender-bending. It could be someone who had been hit when parking in a spot or simply getting out of one and hit from behind. There had been a case reported where a student had a rear window broken but it was unknown how it happened and there was no information given. There also have been simple incidents, where some students just simply had a flat tire.
In the senior lot, the events are normally between a student and another student. There have been some cases where it has been with an adult, but the occurrence is very rare. When the incidents with the adults occur, it’s usually as the adult is dropping off their child. The people involved in the incident can exchange contact, insurance, and other information; which is highly recommended to do.
“I always tell the students you want to make sure that you take pictures of your vehicle as well as the other vehicle that was involved in the accident so that if your car was hit that you know in a day from now or in a couple hours from. If you drive away and something else gets hit you don’t want to be blamed for that damage so you want to make sure that you documented the damage,” said Toby Elmore, director of Student Affairs.
When incidents occur Mr. Elmore, who is in charge of the senior parking lot, checks to see whether everyone is ok and what next to proceed. The parties who are involved in the incident have the option to have the police be involved, which usually means filing a report. When an accident occurs the procedure is to contact the parents of the students that were involved. Most of the time the parents have a conversation on what to do, which usually ends up being to discuss it among themselves.
“The idea of having parents drop off their kids in the senior lot should be changed for years moving forward. When my mom was in high school, they were to get dropped off in the Town Line lot or right on Scholar [Lane], and the kid would just walk into school. It is a privilege for the seniors at Commack High School to drive, so if accidents keep happening, they may revoke that privilege. Yes, some accidents that happen in the lot are the seniors fault, but, some happened to be the parents and a senior is involved it would be advisable to move underclassmen drop off to somewhere else as even though seniors driving and parking in school ground lots is legal, they are still inexperienced drivers, and the addition of drop off in the lot may not be the best idea,” said senior Josie S., via text message.
A little while back an incident with a senior and parent had occurred. Allegedly, when a senior who was driving to find a parking space a collision had occurred. A family member who was dropping off their child and had opened the door and while the senior was driving had hit the door, the senior had then immediately stopped but not enough time to have avoided damage to the car. The car had been scratched from the front door of the driver’s seat all the way to the back bumper of the car.
“The kid who hit the senior’s car was not apologetic at all, the senior understood. It was a mistake, but [the senior] was still upset that his car was damaged by an ignorant freshman,” said Josie S., via text message.
There also has been juniors parking in the senior lot, which is not permitted and could cause serious issues if one of them would get into an accident. When a junior is caught parking, the school would have to call home telling them that the junior isn’t allowed and that they can lose their parking privileges. ◼️
