I chose to create my poem about the horrific accident in 2006. The article “‘WHERE’S KATIE?’ CRASH MOM RECALLS GIRL’S GRUESOME DEATH by Kieran Crowely” is what I based my words i n the poem on. That night a wedding party was traveling by limousine when a car went into oncoming traffic killing 7 year old Katie Flynn and the limo driver. When i first learned about this incident I was in my law class studying murder trials. I was overwhelmed by this story and the fact that Katies head was not attached to her body. The driver Martin Heidgen was drunk driving on the Meadowbrook parkway which is very close to where I live. I was sick to my stomach with this story and I can’t begin to imagine how the Flynns felt.
I chose to use repetition of words like “Katie’s dead,” like Zong uses and create the overall effect that this 7 year old innocent girl got her life taken from her. I also repeated “ .28” as Heidgen was severely over the point of being intoxicated. He killed two people that night and impacted many families. This is an unspeakable tragedy and I chose to limit the amount of words I picked from the article to show how unspeakable it is. To add to how sad this is I used the word “flower girl” spaced out like Zong does because she was on her way home from a wedding where she was the flower girl.
Hello Sydnie! I love your poem even if it is really horrible to think about. If I remember right this is the story of the flower girl that was decapitated because of the positioning on the seatbelt on her neck. Due to the force of the crash she was decapitated instantly. It is a horrible story and I feared seatbelts around my neck for years after learning of this story. But I really enjoyed your retelling of the story and appreciate the fact that you are creating awareness to the horrible things that can happen when drinking and driving. Thank you, Caroline