Opinions : What? Interrupt Their Good Time?

Reporters are trained to be objective and keep personal feelings out of their coverage of news events. David Reyes did that in covering the death of a 9-year-old girl run over by an out-of-control drag race boat at Irvine Lake last Sunday. But he did have those personal feelings, which he relates here.

I had expected a more somber atmosphere among race officials and spectators after the tragedy at last Sunday’s drag boat races at Irvine Lake. But there is something about public events that prompts people to leave their good sense at home.

It’s not that I’m a prude. I like my beer and fun as well as the next person. It’s just that I wouldn’t booze several yards away from the covered body of a 9-year-old girl who only that morning had filled her parents’ hearts with hope. Orange County sheriff’s deputies had erected a canvas canopy preserving the scene at the lake where an out-of-control drag boat had gone ashore and killed young Brandy Branchflower, severing her body before the eyes of her stunned parents and 5-year-old brother, Dan.

Richard Eppler, an eyewitness, summed up the accident: “It was brutal.” Eppler said he later became ill and quite smartly left the shoreline for higher and safer ground.

It didn’t stop the races, however. They continued. And it didn’t prevent beer-drinking spectators from hooting and hollering as each race progressed. All within a few yards of Brandy’s broken body.

I wondered what Brandy’s parents might have felt if they had returned to pick up the rest of their picnic gear amid the hoopla.

Those spectators showed no respect and were callous. A girl had died. A very beautiful young life was lost.

I hope race officials install greater protection for spectators or shut down racing altogether. At the very least, a moment of silence for the young girl should be observed at the next racing meet. No loud engines. No hoots.