Perhaps you saw in The Star on Wednesday an item about a 16-year-old youth being charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Zach Myers, who died from injuries he suffered in a Dec. 1, head-on collision in Olathe.
That’s the case where I stirred a batch of hot coals after I called Zach’s parents to try to find out what happened that Wednesday morning on North Iowa Street.
Zach
What happened, I discovered through some straightforward reporting, was that the driver of the car was going at least twice the posted 25 mph speed limit when the car he was driving crossed the center line and collided with a car being driven by a 20-year-old woman.
The woman, Ashley Poage of Olathe, apparently edged across the center line about the same time as she maneuvered around a truck that was parked on the street. Poage told police she was traveling about 20 mph.
Poage was out on an errand; the boys were traveling from a vocational school in downtown Olathe to their home school, Olathe Northwest.
Neither Poage nor the two front-seat occupants of the car in which 16-year-old Zach was riding was seriously injured. But Zach, seated behind the driver, suffered a massive head injury and died a day later.
A witness who got to the scene a minute or two after the crash told me that Zach did not have his seat belt on when she got to the car and opened the back door. She said it appeared, from blood stains on the lap portion of the belt, that he might have been wearing the lap portion of the belt but not the shoulder harness, which bore no blood stains. The police report was ambiguous on the seat-belt issue.
Joshua Pena, the driver of the car in which the boys were riding — a borrowed car — told police he was going 50 to 60 mph. The other boy in the front seat told police that shortly before the crash “he looked at the speedometer and noticed that they were traveling 70 mph.”
So, now, Pena is charged not only with involuntary manslaughter but also two counts of reckless battery in the injuries of Poage and the third boy.
The formal “complaint” — the charge sheet — that the Johnson County District Attorney’s office filed on Monday does not reveal any details of the case. It does not mention speed, and it does not reveal the results of blood tests conducted on samples taken from Pena and Poage. The police report on the crash says there was no indication that drugs or alcohol were involved.
This is an incredibly tragic and upsetting case all the way around.
One boy is dead. Another is charged with manslaughter and has to live with the death of his companion. The third boy is either kicking himself for not doing anything to try to slow Pena down, or, if he did try to slow him down, is asking himself if he could have done more. And Poage has to be thinking about how things would have been different if that damn truck hadn’t been in her path or if she had arrived a few seconds earlier or later.
And Zach’s parents, Kimberly and John Myers, and Zach’s brother, John Myers Jr. — as well as grandparents, other relatives and friends — are left with a void that will never be filled or a memory that will never be erased.
My deepest sympathy goes out to all parties involved in the case.
I’m sure the Myerses told Zach about the inherent danger of speeding, how to wear his seat belt and to wear it at all times. (John Myers Sr. is a captain on the Olathe Fire Department.)
But it’s a warning to the rest of us — parents, relatives, friends of young people — to remind youngsters, over and over, to obey the speed limit and to tell them, even demonstrate, how to wear their seat belts properly.
If they try to wave us off, we need to tell them about Zach Myers.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Break the butterfly on the wheel much?
No doubt Mr. and Mrs. Myers are wounded to the marrow with the death of their son. I know, Fitz, that you took some big-time blow-back for your dogged pursuit of this story. As long as you have come this far, you may as well call ’em up (the Meyrses) and ask them if they feel justice has been served. Do they want this little kid, 16 years old, to have a felony involuntary manslaughter conviction on his record? Are we all supposed to breathe easier?
This incident was a bad break, like the weather we had last week. No one was drinking or smokin the Hippie Lettuce; the kid just hit the gas. We can legislate speeding laws and punishments for same, and teenage boys are still gonna speed, get acne and boners.
Now, public humiliation, a life-long scarlet letter, incarceration with actual criminals and still another kid on the streets with no future.
Pointless. 193 months ago, this kid wasn’t even born and now we got him headed off to stir for a crime every single teenage boy in history has committed, hittin the gas.
A wreck causes another wreck. We see this on the highway all the time, and now we are seeing it in a justice system with no common sense.
Me personally, I doubt the Myerses really think this will help an already-tragic situation. Maybe I am wrong, but, if they have come far enough to think straight, I’d like to think they forgive the kid, and this mess ends without more pain.
I failed to mention, Chuck, that Pena is charged as a juvenile, so any time he got would be in a juvenile detention facility.
I think any judge would be aware of all the factors you mentioned…Fitting the punishment to the crime in this case will be very difficult. Time in detention? Probation? A scolding from the bench? I don’t know…
The boy used terrible judgment, but, hell, his brain isn’t fully developed yet, and, like you say, occasional bad judgment is generally part and parcel of being a teenager. Most of us who weren’t part of a tragic occurrence when we were young were just plain lucky.
Jim
Congratulations, Fitz. Sometimes stories don’t have happy endings, but maybe, just maybe there are some kids out there who will live because of what we now know, due in large part to your reporting, about this horrific tragedy.
Thanks, John. I appreciate the support. The headwind got pretty strong there for awhile.
:)
So sad. No winners in any of it. As the parent of a 14-year-old boy, I find this a cautionary tale.
Kate
http://momonthedge.com
As sad and horrible as this is, we always hear about the “good” things that come from bad situations. I had hoped that other teens would see this and maybe think about Zach when they got behind the wheel of a car. Unfortunately, reports I’m getting from Olathe Northwest are that the driver is showing no remorse and is seen most days with his girlfriend in the halls. The term PDA (public display of affection) is used often. Also, sadly, I’m hearing that many, many students are supporting Mr. Pena and saying it wasn’t his fault. While fault can only be assigned in a court of law, the facts of speed clearly point to actions that were in violation of the law and most likely contributed to this horrible accident.
Do I want to see another young life “destroyed” by Mr. Pena going to jail? No, but what are the consequences of being the sole person behind the wheel and responsible for the speed and direction the car travels? If there are no consequences in life, what then?
Thanks, O-Mom. I believe remorse, if it hasn’t hit him already, soon will. To many kids, the term confinement means being grounded. Young Pena is about to find out what it really means.