Hear this message: Be careful out there

It's sickening.

Way too often we hear of another one. We had two Friday morning, and still the beat goes on.

The drumbeat of death, that is. Yet another teenager killed in a car crash.

It's practically epidemic in North County these days. A quick scroll of this newspaper's online archives turned up at least eight deaths of teens and young adults in the area in less than three months, going back to Sept. 25, when Michael Victor Pyper of Vista died after crashing his car after his high school's football game.

Reporters can practically write the stories in their sleep.

"A (fill in age) boy/girl from (fill in city) was killed (fill in day) when his/her speeding vehicle went off the road and rolled over/struck a tree. Excessive speed, drugs and/or alcohol are thought to be involved. The victim was not wearing a seat belt."

The script continues even after the crash. Devastated friends and family members call, text and Twitter, expressing their shock over the tragic loss.

They gather at the scene of the accident and create makeshift memorials of flowers, balloons, religious artifacts and other items of significance to the deceased.

Buckets of tears are shed as the lost loved one is recalled as "a wonderful kid," "the nicest person in the school," "always smiling and joking" and "someone we're really gong to miss."

The accident "will be a real wake-up call to other students," somebody usually says.

But it's not. Because these crashes keep on happening.

Teens keep drinking, teens keep speeding and teens keep dying. And nobody seems to be learning anything from those gone before.

Pyper, killed one day before his 18th birthday. Alex Capozza, 17, a passenger killed Oct. 4 in a rollover crash for which the driver was sentenced Thursday to at least nine months in a juvenile detention center.

William Wardrip, 16, killed Oct. 25 in a rollover crash. Gerardo Chacon, 17, a passenger killed Nov. 8 when a car struck a bus shelter.

Miguel Magana Arias, 20, and Nieves Alejandra Ruiz, 17, killed Dec. 5 in Escondido when the car Arias was driving struck a tree. Veronica Elizabeth Aguirre, 17, killed Friday in a rollover crash. Jeffrey David Hodson, 18, killed Friday when a car driven by another teen struck a tree.

When does it end?

Unlike illness or disease, people have a certain amount of control over these situations.

The similarities in these crashes are striking. The majority take place late at night in a speeding car with a driver impaired by either booze or drugs and very often not wearing a seat belt.

Few of us are so naive as to believe we can completely stop kids from taking risks. But this string of tragic deaths has to hammer into the minds of parents, if not the teens themselves, that youth, speed, darkness and alcohol or drugs are a deadly combination.

Growing up, a TV station in my city used to broadcast this nightly announcement: "It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?"

It seemed funny at the time, but now it's deathly serious.

Too many kids in places they shouldn't be doing things they shouldn't do are paying the price for their lack of judgment with their lives.

It's no fun for parents to nag kids to take great care when they get behind the wheel of a car.

Popularity can plummet when a teen takes the keys from the hands of a friend who is drinking.

Buckling a seat belt might seem uncool. Shouting out "Slow down" to a teen who is speeding might seem like a drag.

But you know what's a real drag?

Attending the funeral of a teenage friend.

Sobbing at a memorial for a classmate.

Or being the unlucky one who ends up dead when another teen driver loses control.

No more memorials. Let's keep the kids alive.

Contact staff columnist Jeff Frank at 760-740-5419 or jfrank@nctimes.com.