Speeding teen was going 100 miles per hour. Then a cop wrote him an emotional letter

A police officer’s emotional plea to a teen caught speeding down a highway has captured the attention of thousands.

The letter, from an unidentified officer with the North Ridgeville Police Department in Ohio, urges the 18-year-old to slow down when driving. Writing from personal experience, the officer said “part of your soul disappears every time you have to tell parents that their kid is dead.”

“I can tell you dozens of stories of dead and broken 18 year old bodies that I’ve pulled from cars,” the officer wrote. “Broken bodies that I’ve found in front yards after crashes. Unrecognizable bodies. They thought they were invincible too. They weren’t.

“They were gone so they missed the part where I had to tell their parents that they were dead.”

That post had been shared more than 50,000 times on Facebook by Monday morning.

The unidentified teen was going 100 miles per hour down Ohio State Route 10 on Saturday, police say, according to Cleveland.com.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that car crashes are “the leading cause of death for US teens.”

It estimates that every day, six teens between the ages of 16 and 19 die in a car crash, with hundreds more injured.

Teresa Dreamer, who lives in North Ridgeville, told Fox8 that she appreciated the cop’s letter. And as for the teen?

“Oh my goodness, that’s way too fast,” Dreamer told Fox8. “He should lose his license I think.”

Dreamer added that the teen’s speeding upsets her because “someone could’ve been hit and killed,” Fox8 reported.

“You don’t know,” she told the outlet. “And me riding on my scooter, you have to watch out for people like that.”

In the letter to the teen, the officer wrote that he would “like to believe that you were minutes away from creating an unspeakable Christmas tragedy when I stopped you.”

The officer wrote that he didn’t buy the teen’s “lie” that he didn’t know he was speeding.

“You may not realize when you’re doing 45 in a 35 but you are fully aware of every mile per hour at 100,” the officer wrote. “You realize it with every bump you hit. You realize it as you pass cars so fast the wind moves your car. You realize it every time you drift over the line and when you move the wheel the car reacts a lot quicker than you’re used to.”

The cop goes on to write that although the teen “can’t even fathom” his own death, his parents would have to deal with the aftermath.

“I don’t KNOW your parents, but I know them,” the cop wrote. “I know that when you leave every day they say ‘Be careful. Drive safe.’ Those aren’t just words. That is the very last act of them pleading with you to come home safe.

“... When you leave the house they know that, far and away, the best chance you have of dying that day is in that car,” he continued. “Sometimes you’re the innocent person hit by someone with no regard for anyone else and sometimes you’re the one with no regard for anyone else.

“Today you were the latter.”

There were many examples of the dangers of speeding this past year.

In July, a 32-year-old father was driving back after visiting his wife and newborn baby in the hospital when police say a speeding car slammed into him head-on and killed him. Kevin Quinn died at South Shore Hospital in Massachusetts.

A video from August shows a speeding Lexus crash into a truck that was broken down on a Canadian highway — and blow it to pieces.

Skyla Shirriel, a 7-year-old girl from Maryland, died after police say a speeding truck drove past a school bus — which had its flashing stop sign out — and ran into her. The bus was transporting children from T.C. Martin Elementary in Charles County.

To end the letter, the police officer explained to the teen why he was “proud” to have written him a ticket.

“I hope you’re paying it off for months and with every payment you think about how it wasn’t worth it. I hope you slow down,” he wrote. “I hope that when your mom tells you to ‘drive safe’ you make a promise to her, and yourself, that you will. I hope you can envision me sitting in your kitchen telling your screaming mother that you have been killed.

“Slow down. Please,” the officer concluded. “You are not invincible. I promise.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2018 at 8:42 AM.