Car Crashes

Story by Hannah Hazeldine and Neo Galindo ≫

Car crashes can happen to anyone. According to the CDC, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury and death for U.S. teens. Ethan Sarlls, Sr., Carter Neis, Jr., and Gabe Rubow, Sr. were all involved in accidents.

About two years ago, Ethan Sarlls was driving with his little brother and a 2017 graduate down Church Street on his way to school. It had been raining at the time and he started to lose control from his car hydroplaning. Sarlls was left with a concussion and now has problems with his back. Because of the accident, Sarlls is now more conscious about driving in the rain. Looking back, Sarlls would have handled the situation differently.

“I would have braked sooner and slower and definitely should have downshifted,” Sarlls said.

Carter Neis’s accident went a little bit differently. Neis was in Gardner during summer break. He didn’t see the stop sign he was approaching in time and hit another car. While there were no major injuries, the man who was hit had a slight fracture in his right leg, and Neis left with a ticket. If Carter could have done anything differently, he “wished he would have seen the stop sign in time.”

Gabe Rubow, Sr., is another student at EHS involved in an accident. While driving home from a friend’s house down Acorn Street, Rubow was distracted, resulting in him losing control, ramming into a tree and totaling his truck. He was the only one involved, with this crash resulting in a severe concussion. Rubow’s reaction to this, he says, was “close to world ending, life changing, and an all around bad situation.”