Few Answers. Not Tonight

 

(Photo: News 12 Westchester)

Five kids.

Five lives.

All gone.

The names: Malik Smith, 16, Anthony Billips Jr., 17, Zahnyiah Cross, 12, Shawnell Cross, 11, and Andrew Billips, 8. 

Dead in a car crash early Sunday morning.

We're taught that in journalism. We're instructed to not dance around the term "dead." It's cold and crass and, sadly, correct. 

They died on the Hutchinson River Parkway in Scarsdale, NY. As of tonight, there is no sign of foul play or speed or anything nefarious.

We're also taught to ask questions. Why? Why were these kids from Derby, CT in Scarsdale at that hour?

If you've driven "The Hutch" you know it's not for the faint of heart. I'll offer it might be the most dangerous of New York's parkways but that's a point we can quarrel with elsewhere. Even with improvements over the years and the removal of a tollbooth at the Westchester County line with New York City, it remains a tightly-compacted racetrack.

Yet, speed wasn't a factor on the bend where the accident is reported to have occurred.

The only good news -- sincerely -- is that a nine-year-old survived. Given the number of questions about this awful story, one inquiry is exactly why was Abraham Billips sitting in the hatch of the rented 2021 Nissan Rogue SUV?

It might have saved his life, as dangerous and inexcusable as it might sound.

Abraham went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. 

A small victory, I suppose, when there is no winner.

Sadly, the 16-year-old Malik Smith was the one driving. According to police Malik wasn't licensed and it was past midnight when the crash occurred.

Again, there are questions, and, at least here, I'll let the police answer them.

Now is for mourning these lives ended unnecessarily. Lives that had relocated from New York to Derby that are taken away. Police are speculating the cause of the crash was a distraction or sleep.

Those answers will happen. 

Each child needs to be remembered. Malik Smith's father spoke with WCBS (CBS2).

"Playing basketball. Active athlete. He was a kid. Just wanted to play the game and just be outside," his father Malik Smith, Sr. said. "Good grades, everything."

We try to write about such serious topics occasionally. Ultimately we're always left just shaking our collective heads.

"Why?" will be the overwhelming question and I already see it from the well-meaning but, honestly, judgemental geniuses on social media.

At this time there are few answers other than the basics.

Five dead. None older than 17. A crash on the northbound Hutch after midnight Sunday morning.

Beyond that, nothing.

We need nothing more at this time.

Let their loved ones mourn.

Allow them peace.

The hum of I-95 roars outside my window.

The names: Malik Smith, 16, Anthony Billips Jr., 17, Zahnyiah Cross, 12, Shawnell Cross, 11, and Andrew Billips, 8. 

It's all sad.

Hug your kids.