OT: HS volleyball player’s legs amputated after being hit by a car
Not sure how many of you have heard of this from last week. My family and I were in St. Louis for the President’s Day Classic last weekend, a 3-day volleyball tournament for travel teams. On Saturday evening, after the PM wave matches were finished, 17-year-old Janae Edmondson was struck by a car just blocks from the convention center as her and her parents walked back to their car. Over a week later, she is still in critical condition but has had both of her legs amputated and 4 other surgeries. The driver at fault was speeding at 20 over and rear-ended another car which then squished Janae with a parked car as she crossed in the crosswalk. There’s a whole discussion about the driver that I don’t want to get into but you can find more info on him if you’re so inclined.
The volleyball community has been shaken hard by these events. My daughter was playing that night and we had parked just 2 blocks from the spot of the accident and were definitely in the area around that time as she also played the PM wave. Our team has made a donation to her gofundme to cover medical bills and they plan to do some other things to honor her this season, like writing her #23 on their legs for upcoming matches and wearing purple accessories (Janae’s favorite color and school color).
As happens with these kinds of tragedies, there’s been an outpouring of love and support for Janae, her family, and her community. Just a week prior to the accident, she had committed to play volleyball at Southern Tennessee. They were actually at a college combine the night before the tournament. My daughter set for Janae at that combine. Crazy how you never know what’s going to happen just a day later. Anyway, Southern TN has upheld their scholarship offer and will welcome Janae to their program despite her injuries. St. Louis itself has shown a ton of support, lighting up purple for her as she is still in the hospital there.
If you want to, you can give to their gofundme linked above. They’ve raised $500,000 of their $900,000 goal so far.
February 26th, 2023 at 3:00 PM ^
Yeah, I'm familiar with the story. Absolutely heartbreaking. A great gesture by SoT to honor the scholarship offer, and prayers up for Janae.
We all know life can change in an instant, but it's never easy to see these things happen to kids.
February 26th, 2023 at 3:42 PM ^
Also read she had just committed to play on scholarship. So sad and didn’t need to happen.
February 26th, 2023 at 4:04 PM ^
Wow, what a terrible tragedy. I've taken my daughter to compete with her club in that tournament before.
As a parent, I can't imagine having to deal with this. Prayers to her and her loved ones. And a gofundme contribution.
February 26th, 2023 at 4:19 PM ^
Terrible thing to happen and it being preventable makes it worse. What can we do? Write your senators.
February 26th, 2023 at 4:26 PM ^
It's stories like this that keep parents up at night, even beyond your kid's 18th birthday. My heart goes out to her and her family. Absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. I'm sure she's a fighter but no one should have to use that fight to deal with something like this.
February 26th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
My mother was killed in a similar accident when i was 14. I had a visceral reaction to the story when I read it.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:38 PM ^
LB, hope your head is in the best spot it can be. Sorry for your loss.
February 27th, 2023 at 1:40 AM ^
Thank you, It's been 50+ years so it isn't a fresh loss but it does bring a tragedy like this a bit closer to home.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:00 PM ^
This is national news, as it seems to have triggered a court proceeding brought by the Missouri AG (I think) to remove the local DA for having failed to keep the driver in jail related to a prior incident. I cannot report the details of the DA’s alleged errors that supposedly would lead to removal from office, or say who is justified.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
Not to turn this sad story into a firestorm, and don't know the prior circumstances, but it is a damn shame when you are soft on crime / criminals, you often get unfortunate subsequent "issues" like this.
I feel for this family as this could have been avoided. Thoughts and prayers may get her out of critical condition, but they won't give this young lady her legs back.
Edit - info on the suspect:
The suspect in this case is 21-year-old Daniel Riley. He's charged with second-degree assault, armed criminal action and several misdemeanors. Police said he was speeding and did not brake. Investigators said he did not have a license, was out on bond for a previous robbery case, and violated an order to wear a GPS monitoring device and be on house arrest. The man accused of speeding downtown and crashing into a 17-year-old volleyball player this past weekend was out on bond when the crash happened despite violating the conditions of his bond in an earlier robbery case more than 50 times.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
"...was out on bond when the crash happened despite violating the conditions of his bond in an earlier robbery case more than 50 times."
February 27th, 2023 at 12:46 AM ^
There aren't really errors on the DA's part:
Gardner said her office filed requests to revoke Riley’s bond on three separate occasions—in December 2021, August 2022, and as recently as January 2023—and that the judge in the case either ignored or denied their requests.
So the AG of one political party is taking advantage of a tragedy to remove a DA of the other party. I'll let everyone here figure out which party is which.
February 27th, 2023 at 7:30 AM ^
So I guess those who are blaming it on the DA being "soft on crime/criminals" have some egg on their face...
February 26th, 2023 at 8:15 PM ^
I live in St. Louis. This incident has garnered a lot of attention. I think that this tragedy will be a catalyst for positive change in the community.
February 26th, 2023 at 9:46 PM ^
And another hope: That it might actually do something to fix the problem of how dangerous it can be to drive in the St. Louis area. Every time I've driven there, I've never encountered a metro area whose drivers are so universally terrifying behind the wheel, no matter where you are. Red lights? Speed limits? Stop signs? What are those?
February 27th, 2023 at 7:57 AM ^
I'd been feeling a bit down the past two days over a classic non-real issue (girl I'd been seeing is prob gonna end it), and reading this brought tears to my eyes...how blessed we are to be hinging our joys and troubles on things like the performance of college athletes. Prayers for her and her family