My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the young man, Andrew Frank Kussga, and the driver of the car who hit him. This is a tragedy at anytime of the year but during the holiday season, it seems even harder.

Now for other observations:

1. The story that identified the young man as being black was about a person whose identity was unknown to the police. I find it hard to believe that the color of his skin was anything more than information and description that could help identify the young man. The color of his skin and the other information – thin beard about 6 ft tall – could help someone recognize him. Should we quit including in a description of a woman that she has blonde hair because of the “blonde” jokes?

2. Even sadder, for me, is that there is no information about the life of this young man except in one of the comments to this article. I wish that his brief life could have been celebrated by sharing his activities – such as tutoring

Again, take all this anger, hurt, and concern and put it on paper and send it to the schools and the local police! Talk to our kids, let them know that no law is going to protect you from the damage of a car going 1 to 100 miles per hour. The only thing that can protect them is knowledge and each of us doing our part as drivers. But accident do happen and all we can do from those are learn and pull together to make a difference! Write those letters! Wishing each one save travels!

Pedestrian safety is the point of this story. The victim was not wearing anything reflective, or even light colors, he was crossing against the light, at twilight, when visibility is very uncertain. Teach your kids people !

My heart goes out to that poor 29 year old driver. Through no fault of her own, she is a killer, and will never see the world the same way again.

First of all let me say that my prayers, and HEART go out to this family! Second, let me say that i am HORRIFIED that EVERYTHING today seems to be about RACE! Can NO ONE on the face of this earth say "BLACK, WHITE, or HISPANIC" when discribing someone without being labeled ignorant or racists! I have lived in Cary for 3 years now, the FACT is that kids do seem to just "moesy" across the crosswalk with no attention for the cars. It is the law for cars to stop @ crosswalks, but even the most cautious drivers only slow down ..... if a kid is NOT paying attention and just WALKS out there is almost nothing you can do. Hit the padestrian, or hit someone in a car. Either way someone could get hurt! I think it's really SAD that through all of this the ONE thing that TWO people pull out is not, "teach kids safty on the road", but "HEY you said BLACK MALE?!?" How IMMATURE is that?? If the kid was WHITE or HISPANIC she would have said that too!! She was simply stating a FACT! GET OVER IT!

It appears more and more students are getting killed crossing the streets of Wake County. I can recall one incident on Hwy 64, by Apex High, this young man was killed just feet away from his High School. Another was kiled by Green hope High. Not to place blame, but we, as drivers need to be more aware of our surroundings, especially when we are close to school zones. As well as, anyone, child or adult, crossing the street needs to exercise a little common sense and look both ways before crossing the street!