"He was sensible, smart." Mom says of kid who died lying in the road playing chicken.

http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=629

http://www.triplicate.com/photos/upload/20020604093639_medium.jpg'>

Deborah Cain discusses the accident that killed her son last weekend in Gasquet.

When Deborah Cain saw some boys lying next to a road near Gasquet earlier this year, she asked her son what the kids were doing. Lediah told her it was essentially a game of chicken – where kids pretend to be dead in the street and panic unsuspecting motorists.

That was the joke, Lediah said. When the motorists stopped to offer aid to the "victim," he would jump up and run to join his friends who were hiding nearby.

What Cain didn't realize at the time she heard this was that her son would become a traffic fatality while playing the same game.

"He just had so much joy and happiness and life," Cain said yesterday.

Her son Lediah Schmidt, 17, died last weekend on Highway 199 near Middle Fork Gasquet Road.

Cain said it was about 11:30 p.m. Friday when Lediah and three of his friends gathered in front of the Gasquet Market to play the game.

In her mother's backyard in Crescent City, seated on a bench that looks out over the ocean, Cain tried to make sense of the tragedy.

"He was sensible, smart. He wasn't stupid," she said. "I think what they were doing was lying on the side of the road and somebody said to lay in the center divider."

At least that's what Lediah's friends said afterwards in describing the accident. The California Highway Patrol, however, said the accident scene shows Lediah was actually in the southbound lane of traffic.

"Unless there's something I haven't learned yet, I don't believe he would have laid in the middle of the road," she said.

Yesterday, Officer Don Bloyd said the Highway Patrol is still investigating the accident and it would not speculate on why Lediah was in the street. The agency's accident report did say the youth was in the southbound traffic lane.

John Rutledge, 26, and passenger Melanie McVay, 24, both of Brookings, were traveling southbound in a 1999 Chevrolet between 50 mph and 65 mph when the accident occurred, according to the accident report.

Exactly why the youths would choose such a dangerous pasttime doesn't make sense to Cain.

"My son was very athletic. He loved skateboarding and snowboarding. He was also a survivalist and loved camping," she said.

It was camping that Lediah was planning on doing last weekend. But the Del Norte High School junior was a week short of receiving his driver's license and Cain didn't want him to drive yet.

"He wanted to go camping but I told him he should wait one more week. I used to drive without a license, but I didn't want anything to happen to him," she said.

Cain said she didn't blame anyone for the accident, and added she didn't want anyone else to criticize the youths who may have few outlets for entertainment in a small community.

"The boys – they have to live with what they've seen and what they've experienced," she said. "Instead of criticizing them, we need to listen to them and what they need for entertainment, whether it's a park, a skateboard park or something else. And we need to let them know how precious life is."

A private funeral service will be held today at the Gasquet Bible Church. The family is requesting donations be made to CASA at 1080 Mason Mall, Suite No. 9, or to the Crescent City Skate Board Park Fund at Coast Central Credit Union.

moral of the story : never trust a mom in a VOLCOM shirt

alternate moral: living in some little hick town makes your kids to stupid shit to stay entertained.

agreed.

Alternate moral: dont have children with white people.

Originally posted by suburbian bum

Alternate moral: dont have children with white people.

Hahaha...

dumbass..

how stupid are kids now-a-days..........

haah its not a hick thing...but its definately a white thing....here in SF some kid from a rich ass white school was killed playing chicken...the news said he was standing in front of a street car to see if it would stop first or something...maybe the dumbass didnt know that street cars need like 50 feet before they can come to a complete stop ahahahah dumbass white people!! look at jackass...all those people who do dumb shit (its funny as hell) THEY ARE ALL WHITE!! ahahahahah im half white but my asian side tells me when to not do stupid shit

i consider asians honkies too.

i honestly feel bad for the driver and the mother...

kids do stupid shit like that, yall handt realized this yet?

you ask me that whole situations fucked up, makin a mockery of some 17 year old kid whose life got tookin cause he was being a kid... it aint right

wether you care or not i dont respect that kinda shit no matter how stupid it may have seemed

he was 17? holy shit.....

Originally posted by Mr. Mang

moral of the story : never trust a mom in a VOLCOM shirt

This had me rolling. I was thinking the exact same thing......

:lol:

In what kind of town do you actually have friends gather to play this game??

Seriously, some of us are a little older than teens and did dumb things when we were younger, but at anypoint did we lie in the road, albeit a road where the SPEED LIMIT is between 50-65 and not move. I remember waterbalooning cars and then running and hiding when the cars stopped, but i didn't stand in front of cars on the freeway and see if they would swerve before the oblitirated my ass. This kid was going to die before he was 18 anyway, it sounds bad but you all know it is true. That driver was doing society a favor, thinning out the gene pool, imagine this kid responsible for the life a baby, thank god he didn't reproduce yet.

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i'm sick of dead kids. they should stop doing the dead thing. its gross to say, but kids die everyday like crazy. i wish people were just alive and nothing stupid happened to cause death. natural causes should be the only thing.

Originally posted by -MOE LESTER-

haah its not a hick thing...but its definately a white thing....here in SF some kid from a rich ass white school was killed playing chicken...the news said he was standing in front of a street car to see if it would stop first or something...maybe the dumbass didnt know that street cars need like 50 feet before they can come to a complete stop ahahahah dumbass white people!! look at jackass...all those people who do dumb shit (its funny as hell) THEY ARE ALL WHITE!! ahahahahah im half white but my asian side tells me when to not do stupid shit

you're just as ignorant as any other "white" kid doing dumb shit.no one is fully "white" i fucking hate people....

Originally posted by Kr430n5_666

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i'm sick of dead kids. they should stop doing the dead thing. its gross to say, but kids die everyday like crazy. i wish people were just alive and nothing stupid happened to cause death. natural causes should be the only thing.

It was natural...."Natural Selection", that is...

Originally posted by socrates

Seriously, some of us are a little older than teens and did dumb things when we were younger, but at anypoint did we lie in the road, albeit a road where the SPEED LIMIT is between 50-65 and not move. I remember waterbalooning cars and then running and hiding when the cars stopped, but i didn't stand in front of cars on the freeway and see if they would swerve before the oblitirated my ass. This kid was going to die before he was 18 anyway, it sounds bad but you all know it is true. That driver was doing society a favor, thinning out the gene pool, imagine this kid responsible for the life a baby, thank god he didn't reproduce yet.

oh my fault....

i didnt know it was your job to pass judgement on people

do i live up to your standards you petty fuck?