Last weekend was particularly tragic in Harford County.
In Edgewood alone, there was a double shooting one night and a murder the next. A pedestrian was run over and killed on Route 40 in Aberdeen at about 6 a.m. on New Year’s Eve. (That was officially Monday, but with New Year’s Day being Tuesday, it was a long weekend.) Aberdeen suffered another tragic loss when the preacher at one of its churches died in a car crash early Thursday morning. Five people from Parkville, including kids whose father lives in Bel Air, were killed in Ohio by a drunk driver who drove four miles the wrong way on an interstate highway before slamming his pickup into the family’s mini-van.
That was the worst, joined by the death of 17-year-old Matt “Hank” Rutherford at around 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28. He died five days after being critically injured in a crash on West Ring Factory Road in Bel Air in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, Dec. 23. It was cold, dreary and rainy that day. “Hank,” a Bel Air High School senior, was driving toward home with two of his buddies after they had played basketball.
There were reports that as his vehicle crested a hill, another vehicle coming in the opposite direction was on the wrong side of the road, causing “Hank” to swerve his vehicle. Police reports said excessive speed and wet roads caused the wreck. The cause doesn’t matter because it won’t bring him back; “Hank’s” vehicle went off the road and crashed. He was the most seriously injured and didn’t survive the week.
That’s the unfathomable: young people dying. Kids and teenagers aren’t supposed to die, but they’re human like the rest of us, and sadly they do.
Of all the people killed and otherwise harmed during the calamitous last weekend, I only knew “Hank.” And I didn’t really know him, I know his family. I met his grandmother a couple of times years ago. I also met his dad once or twice. I have been friends with his grandfather for years after working with him at The Record newspaper in Havre de Grace and at The Aegis. (I’ve also played a lot of cards, drank plenty of beverages and ate some crabs with him. Both those are different stories for a different time.)
I worked with his mother, Chele, years ago at The Record newspaper in Havre de Grace when she was most likely still a teenager. And, more recently, at The Aegis where she joined our company, bringing a breath of fresh air to our production operation. It was just a few short weeks ago that she was proudly showing “Hank’s” graduation pictures around the company. He was a good looking boy, who made his momma (and the rest of his family) proud.
Judging by the scores of people who filled Mountain Christian Church on Route 152 Wednesday evening, forming a line that snaked around the church and around and around the lobby, waiting to pay their respects, he made a lot of people happy.
The horror visited upon his family and friends – the crash was the day before Christmas Eve, his passing was in the midst of the holiday week and his services were right after the New Year began – is incomprehensible. The love of their lives was taken during what is supposed to be the most joyous time of the year. For many of them, it will never be again.
At times like these, and too many of us know there are too many times like these, it’s a reminder to cherish every moment. And to love your loved ones as if there’s no tomorrow. And to do whatever you can to protect each wave of young people, who are joyously becoming new drivers, from the perils of the road as they get behind the wheel.
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