Wish They Were Here
Last Thursday at approximately 10:30 pm, a motorcycle carrying Wilson and Mery Mendez and their two young sons, Gino and Josué, was struck by an SUV traveling at high-speed on the Avenida principal of Ojochal, a small, rural town in southern Costa Rica.
The driver of the SUV, a resident ex-pat from Canada, continued to accelerate, dragging the bike and its passengers another 100 meters over rough, unpaved terrain before leaving them behind. Mery and Gino died at the scene while the driver continued home. He was arrested by local police shortly after and clearly drunk.
News of the accident shocked the town. All of us knew one or more of the people involved. We also knew how common it is for locals to carry their kids around on motorcycles and in the back of pick-up trucks, and what it felt like to drive a little too fast on our bumpy dirt roads. To turn a dark corner and see someone walking in your path. We knew how often people drive home drunk from the bar.
We get used to the way things are. In small communities, people are left to police themselves, or not. Rural roads don’t have sidewalks. Poor families use whatever means of transportation they have access to. As shocking as the news of the tragedy was, we realized at some level that this was inevitable.
A sickening question began to arise: If the conditions for such an accident are present every single day and we accept those conditions do we not then also accept the consequences? And if we accept the consequences are not all of us, at some level, culpable?
People get upset when they hear how car manufacturers anticipate the number of deaths and lawsuits their products will cause as part of the cost of doing business. ‘How dare they take our lives for granted!’, we think and yet we buy and use those cars believing we won’t be included in that calculation. Likewise, we believe that people can look out for themselves and that the system, and or our reflexes, and or perhaps the universe will protect us.
Last night a memorial was held on the soccer field in town. Friends and neighbors lit candles as the local Pastor asked us to pray for the deceased and the recovery of Wilson and Josue who remain in hospital.
Though terribly sad, it felt good to mourn together. I only wish more ex-pats had shown up. I wish Mery and Gino had too.
*Update- Wilson died in hospital soon after leaving Josué to be raised by a family member.
