'You Are Not Invincible' Officer's Note to Speeding Teen Goes Viral

Officer's emotional note to speeding teenager goes viral

An Ohio police officer's emotional note about the dangers of reckless driving addressed to a teenage driver he pulled over doing 100 miles per hour in a 65 zone is going viral after it was posted to the department's Facebook page. 

The message, which is addressed to "the 18-year-old kid I stopped on SR 10," was written by one of the police officers who works at the North Ridgeville Police Department. 

"I'd like to believe that you were minutes away from creating an unspeakable Christmas tragedy when I stopped you," the officer wrote in a letter posted on the department's Facebook page. "If not only killing yourself, you were well on your way to killing some innocent person who was minding their own business doing nothing else wrong but being in front of you."

The officer didn't mince words in the letter and even called out the teen for trying to lie to him about how fast he was going. 

"You said you didn’t realize how fast you were going. That’s a lie. You may not realize when you’re doing 45 in a 35 but you are fully aware of every mile per hour at 100."

"You realize it with every bump you hit. You realize it as you pass cars so fast the wind moves your car. You realize it every time you drift over the line and when you move the wheel the car reacts a lot quicker than you're used to. You absolutely realized it," the officer wrote.

Teenage drivers have more fatal crashes and more injury-and-property damage crashes than any other age group according to a recent study from UCLA. Researchers concluded that the "relatively high accident rate of younger drivers (especially male drivers) is most likely due to inattention to safety considerations rather than a lack of technical driving ability. 

The letter also described the horror officers like him face whenever they have to inform someone that their child has been killed in a car crash. 

"Part of your soul disappears every time you have to tell parents that their kid is dead," the officer wrote, saying that while he doesn't personally know that teen's parents, he's certain they tell him things like, "Be careful" and "Drive safe" every time the teen leaves the house. He implored the 18-year-old to listen to his parent's warnings so they don't have to one day hear that their son had died in a car crash. 

"You seemed like a really nice kid who made a bad decision," the officer wrote, attaching an image of the ticket to the Facebook post. "I don't feel bad about this ticket at all."

The officer said he was proud to write this ticket, because the teenager would be paying off for months and will hopefully make him rethink speeding. 

"I hope you slow down. I hope that when your mom tells you to 'drive safe' you make a promise to her, and yourself, that you will. I hope you can envision me sitting in your kitchen telling your screaming mother that you have been killed," the officer wrote.

"Slow down. Please. You are not invincible. I promise," the officer wrote as a final warning in the Facebook post. 

The officer's full note to the teenager is embedded below: 


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