Every now and then I think about the fatal car accident of a beloved teacher from my high school. The story was featured on Dateline NBC one summer because of the controversy surrounding the handling of the scene and the treatment of the victims. None of it would have altered the ultimate outcome one bit.

Here's the only online version of the story that I can find ... '99 accident near Absarokee brought laws into question:

On that sunny summer day, four people enjoying a vacation and five on their way to an anniversary party collided in a blizzard of blood.

a father and son had been partially ejected through the windshield. Another passenger dangled from a passenger window. A fourth passenger was crumpled under the heavy fishing and camping gear that had been propelled forward by the impact.

They were all members of the Callan family from Buffalo, N.Y.: the father, Daniel, 52; his 17-year-old son Stephen, who was driving; his 15-year-old son Kevin; and a 16-year-old nephew, Christopher. None was wearing seatbelts.

Later in the article, the widow, Sue, relates the following:

In one visit to the accident scene, she said she parked on the side of the road near the four white crosses. A woman in a big, blue pickup pulled up next to her. "Are you trying to have another accident?" the woman screamed. "You don't drive any better than your son."

A fairly inexcusable comment to make.

When the locals heard that New Yorkers had caused the accident, they probably took it to mean folks from New York City, with all those stereotypes. But the people in Buffalo, or more precisely Clarence, are probably just as courtesy and neighborly and friendly as people from Montana. And the people from Oakfield are even more so.

I rented an Isuzu Rodeo in Colorado once and I would never drive one again. They're top-heavy.