2008 Woodie Awards
OC student dies in car accident
Dan Warn
Issue date:
4/23/08
Section:
News
|
Williamson had been driving his brother Joss Williamson down Old Belfair Highway when he lost control of his vehicle while rounding a bend in the road.
Regrettably, as the vehicle rolled, hitting a stump and landing on its top, Williamson was killed.
Joss Williamson was able to free himself from the vehicle, escaping with only a few minor injuries.
Laura Wing, also a Running Start student from North Mason High School, had been taking English 101 with Williamson. Together, they and another student sat near each other and formed what Wing called the "Belfair Crew."
"He was really nice," said Wing, who had found out about the accident from a Myspace bulletin. "I was in shock that someone could be alive one minute and then gone. It is kind of hard to grasp."
Wing, a teen driver herself, took Williamson's accident and tried to learn something from it. Wing agreed that the teen accident rate is too high. She said she drove noticeably more careful after hearing about Williamson.
"I was driving home that night and somebody was riding my tail," she said, adding that instead of speeding up and driving recklessly, she kept going a safe speed, letting the other car pass.
Kelsey Luck, a student at Seattle University and a friend of Williamson, was in an accident much like his.
At the time, she was a junior at North Mason.
Luck, having rolled her car three times also had a younger sibling, a sister, in the passenger seat. While her sister had next to no injuries, Luck suffered from a serious concussion.
"The scary thing is that the only difference between the outcomes of both of our accidents is that my car landed on its wheels," Luck said.
Williamson's memorial was on Saturday, 4 p.m., at Green Mountain. There, his friends and family gathered to celebrate his life.
Apart from taking Running Start classes, Williamson had been active in the Boy Scouts of America, the North Mason Boy's Soccer team and had also taken some courses from West Sound Technical Institute.
As a scout, Williamson had been working on his Eagle Scout ranking, which only two percent of all boy scouts ever achieve. Unfortunately, he had turned eighteen before he could earn the badge, which is the Eagle cut-off age. Though he did not earn the badge, Williamson managed to get closer to the rank of Eagle than the majority of scouts.
To earn the rank of Eagle Scout, a boy not only has to master a substantial set of skills, but he also has to plan, fundraise for, and carry out a major community service project. Williamson had been carrying out his project at Green Mountain.
Joss Williamson is currently organizing a group of well-wishers to finish the Green Mountain project where Williamson left off.
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