JJ SAYS: Callan story still important

I can never feel the pain that LJ, Julie and Heather Callan live with every day of their life, but I can feel the pain of a similar tragic loss.

I’ve been asked many times why write about Brett Callan’s life and death every year. To write about his life is easy. It is to write about a 16-year-old’s zest for life, passion for basketball, love of family and bright future.

To write about his death is painful to all involved in the high-speed car crash on a rural road near Petaluma in 2004. Why, each year dredge up old hurts?

There are two reasons.

One is to make sure students never forget who Brett Callan was and what he represented during his too-short life. Brett was the kind of teenage son we would all like to have. He wasn’t perfect, but he was the definition of “a good kid.” He was enthusiastic, with a love of life and family. He had both a passion and a talent for basketball.

The other reason is to - hopefully - convince other teenagers to reflect on the consequences of their actions before they ever happen.

Brett wasn’t driving the speeding car that fatal night, but he and three of his classmates were in the car. Everyone was injured and Brett died. The point Brett’s father, AJ; mother, Julie; and sister Heather, will make again this year when they visit every team in the tournament is that bad things happen when people do dumb things behind the steering wheel of a vehicle.

You don’t have to be a teen to make bad decisions in a car, but teenagers are especially vulnerable because too many think they are invincible. They are not. No one is.

Things are even worse for today’s teens. They not only have to fight the impulse to go fast, but there is much more traffic and, perhaps today’s biggest problem, there seems to be an absolute necessity to talk, text or message while driving.

Driving is dangerous and requires full attention and smart decisions.

Every time a person gets behind a wheel, he or she has their own and someone else’s life in their hands.

I can better understand the Callans’ hurt now than I could when I first wrote this column 13 years ago. My own sister was killed in a car crash just before Christmas three years ago as she and her husband drove from Clear Lake to Santa Rosa for a holiday visit.

The crash happened because the driver of an oncoming vehicle swerved to miss a wine box on the highway and ended headed north in the southbound lane.

Inattention? Bad decision? Unavoidable? Who knows. The result was tragedy.

The point is that motor vehicles are deadly weapons and should be treated with the same care and respect as a loaded gun.

Why write this column every year?

So we always remember there is real meaning to the BRETT CALLAN Tournament.

Why write this column every year?

So if one person is not killed or severely injured; so if one family does not have to live with the hurt of a lost loved one, it is worth every sentence.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)