OCR Text |
Show News 6x Views Highlights of news events and personal ODinions of DeoDle and haDDeninas in Davis County. By GARY R. BLODGETT news editor GARY R. BLODGETT News Editor Have you ever had a fear for what someone else does? A fear that it might end in tragedy? I've had this inner fear -- a strong fear for young people who work alone in a convenience store, especially those who work late at night, and particularly parti-cularly young women who work late at night. I know it's a job, but I place women working in a convenience store alone at night in the same category categ-ory as young women who hitchhike. They are asking for trouble. Fears that situations like this might end in tragedy alarmingly struck close to home this week with the tragic shooting death of a young Layton woman a clerk working alone in a 7-11 store. She was killed "gangland style" with several shots to the head. More bizarre, there were no attempts of molest and nothing was reportedly stolen. Why would something like this happen? Who would do something like this? A few weeks earlier, a young Salt Lake City mother, also working late in a convenience store, was kidnapped. Her molested and murdered body was found in the foothills. Every few months you hear of robberies, kidnappings kidnap-pings and murders of young people working in a convenience store -- usually alone, and usually in the early morning hours. Yes, convenience stores operate late hours for the "convenience" of customers. Many gasoline stations that for years closed at 1 0 p.m. because of lack of business are now converting or adding a convenience store and remaining open all night. The potential for tragedy robbery, rape and murder is growing. And the number of stores. ' usually located cn heavily traveled streets with direct routes to trie Interstate, are booming. Don't tell me that procrastination doesn't pay. For weeks I have been urged to get the snowtires off the car and the summer tires installed. Naturally. I procrastinated. But now 1 can come back and say, "I told you so." I was able to get around a lot better in last weekend's snow storm because I still have my snowtires on. And I might just procrastinate another few weeks. It's still too early to tell. . . It's time to buckle up your seat belt or else. For years cars have been equipped with seat belts and it has been the option of the occupant whether to buckle up or to leave the seat belt tucked tuck-ed under the seat. Now it's law that all front-seat occupants, including the driver, be buckled up whenever the vehicle is in motion. One of my colleagues here at the Clipper told of his friends whom had never before worn their seat belt decided, on a whim, to buckle up just once to see what it was like. On their way home from Ogden, they met a truck headon in the car's lane of traffic -- and the terrific impact killed the truck driver. But seat belts saved the family. Others can testify of being saved from death or serious injury because they were NOT wearing the r belt. j But like one Utah Highway Patrolman tells it: "I have never in more than 1 5 years on patrol had to pull a fatal victim from a vehicle -- if he or she was : wearing a seat belt. |