Life is so fleeting, as our road death toll teaches us

Apost from a friend on Facebook got me pondering. It said: On an ancient wall in China, where a brooding Buddha blinks. Deeply graven is the message, “It is later than you think”. The clock of life is wound but once and no one has the power, To know just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. Now is all the time you own, the past a golden link. Go cruising now my brothers, it’s later than you think.

The origin of the poem is not clear from a quick search on

Google — a lot of references credit its author as anonymous, but its poignancy made me think.

Life is fleeting. Tomorrow isn’t promised and yesterday is gone, the only time is now.

That’s the realisation that many grieving families must come to, particularly those who have lost loved ones in road crashes.

Last week we reported a young man was taken from his family in a crash near Kawerau.

“Why is it always the good ones?” asked Keanan’s father, Werner Hanekom.

Keanan, 18, died after his car and a truck collided on State Highway 2 at Pikowai last Wednesday. The truck then rolled onto another car.

Keanan’s dad had to identify his body.

There has been an outpouring of grief over this young man’s death. A young man who barely got a taste of adulthood.

Another life was lost in our region on Friday night when two cars collided on State Highway 29A in Matapihi.

Two people were taken to hospital in serious condition and one died at the scene.

Another family left to grieve and wonder if they had said everything they wanted to say to that person.

The death was part of a horror night on the country’s roads, where another 15 people were injured.

Yesterday, seven of nine people travelling in a van were killed in a fatal crash near Picton.

According to the Ministry of Transport’s website, there were 177 deaths on New Zealand roads between the beginning of the year and June 18.

Nineteen of those deaths were on Bay of Plenty roads.

The ripple effects of such carnage is hard to quantify.

There are so many things we have no control over, but we can control our own reactions. Now is the time we need to react to get the road toll down.

Just how that is done is a difficult question to answer.

But I’ve no doubt these grieving families want answers.

Tomorrow, indeed, isn’t promised — and that’s a very hard lesson for us all to learn.