On Friday I received a call from a company that has been a client of mine for the past year or so. When I heard Roy’s voice, I naturally assumed that it was a business call. He asked me if I had recently received a call from Karl (the owner of the company). I became excited, thinking: “If Karl is involved, it must be a great business opportunity!“
Instead, Roy said, “I’m just calling to let you know that David was killed in a car accident on Tuesday.“
Wow.
David was a co-worker of theirs and one of my favorite people to work with since he struck the perfect balance between being a business-person and being a friend. After a moment I said to Roy: “Didn’t he have young kids?“
Yes, David was killed at the age of 44 leaving behind a wife and three boys.
Roy told me that the police investigators told them that David was driving on a regional road (not a major highway) at mid-morning. The weather was good. It appears as though David undid his seat-belt and was reaching for something on the passenger side of the car, which caused him to move his driving hand ever-so-slightly to the left. He died in a head-on collision with a tanker truck.
We’ve all done silly things in our cars. Cell phones, coffee, food, and many other things can cause us to drive less safely than we should. The news about David was a cold, hard reminder that life-and-death events can occur in an instant and all it takes is one split-second slip in our attention.
Later in the day, I happened to come across David’s business card, which, for some strange reason, was lying on a corner of my desk and not in the card file box. I took his business card and put it by the gauges in the dash of my car, to serve as a reminder to ALWAYS drive safely.
You’ll be missed, Dave!
