Another student has been struck and killed by a car.
Nickolas Klein, a mechanical engineering major, was killed at Seventh and Chestnut streets Saturday about 8 p.m.
This accident happened just two months after the death of Chico State student Nicholas Castellanos.
Castellanos died at Enloe Medical Center after being struck by a car at West Fifth and Walnut streets about 10 p.m.
Whether or not alcohol was involved in either accidents is unknown.
That’s two students in less than three months who have died because someone was being stupid.
Whether that person was the driver or the pedestrian does not matter.
Two lives were lost and two lives were irrevocably changed for the worse.
It is time for people to start viewing cars how they view guns ­— they both have the ability to kill.
Perhaps cars even more so considering about 1.3 million people die in vehicle-related crashes each year, which is nearly three times the amount of deaths caused by gun violence.
That’s about 3,287 per day.
And more than half of those deaths occur among young adults.
College students are young adults.
The majority of Chico is made up of college students, so it’s safe to say that students are more likely to die from vehicle-related deaths in Chico than anyone else.
It’s time for for people to take vehicle safety seriously.
Klein and Castellanos’ deaths could have been prevented.
All members of the community have a responsibility to keep Chico safe.
It’s clear that traffic laws alone are not enough.
Drivers must be extremely aware of pedestrians, especially downtown on weekend nights.
And pedestrians must be aware of vehicles, even if they are intoxicated.
Traffic laws don’t change based on a person’s level of drunkenness.
How many more people have to die in order for change to happen?