How Did That Happen?

Sunday 31st October 2010 at 6.30am my son Sten Laanisto tragically died in a road traffic accident.

What really happened on this how to write a good introduction paragraph for an essay cold and rainy October Morning?

The purpose of writing this post is to try and make sense of the sequence of events leading to the tragic loss of Sten’s life and for relatives, friends and acquaintances outline of literature review sample ч to comprehend what happened that fatal morning.

This is a factual account by Kädi who was with Sten during the final moments of his life and the front seat passenger in the car that brought my son’s life to a premature end.

On Saturday 30th October 2010 at approximately 9.00am we (myself, Sten, Silver and Boris) started our journey by car to Cork to spend the weekend celebrating Halloween. Boris was friends with two girls from Cork, Annela and Eva, who had invited us all to a house party to celebrate Halloween.

Boris was familiar with Cork and therefore arranged the hotel accommodation that would be convenient to the house party address, booking two double rooms with double occupancy for edit my paper online the four of us at the Rochestown Park Hotel in the family names of Boris and Silver paid for in advance with Silver’s credit card.

After arriving and checking in at the hotel we went out for dinner at a city restaurant. On the way back to the
hotel we stopped at an off-licence to purchase alcohol to have a drink back at the hotel before the main event of the evening started .It was mutually agreed that the car would be left in the hotel car park and the keys would be kept in my handbag for safe keeping. We all started having drinks to start celebrating Halloween whilst we waited for Annela and Eva to meet us at the hotel.

Once the girls arrived we ordered a taxi from the hotel reception and went to Katie’s Halloween house party, which was lively and a good time was had by all.

At 4.00am we ordered a taxi to take us all back to the hotel and were joined by Annela and Eva. We all went to our rooms continuing to discuss the funny things that had happened during the course of the evening at the party moving from room to room a few times causing very little noise in doing so, until I finally settled down to sleep in the same room as Sten.

At approximately 5.00am I heard the sound of a outline of literature review sample seminararbeit englisch muster mobile phone ringing in the room, which transpired to be Boris’s mobile that Sten had in his possession. Sten answered the phone and it was Lauri calling who was our friend from Dublin who said he was in Cork and looking to meet up with us at the hotel where we were staying. At this time I was in the restroom and upon returning to the room Sten was already dressed and had taken the car keys from my handbag saying “I am going to meet Lauri, he is in Cork and unable to find the Rochestown Park Hotel”

After a long discussion about driving, Sten left the hotel room and I ran after him in order to ensure he was not alone in trying to find Lauri. I am sure the hotel staff where aware of us leaving the hotel; fortunately Lauri was within walking distance of the hotel, so we were able to return to our hotel room without incident.

Once back in the hotel room, we continued to move between rooms until one of the hotel guests came out of there room complaining about the noise we were making. We returned to our respective rooms with Lauri joining us in our room and continued talking about our plans for later in the day.

Our conversation stopped when there was a knock at the door. Sten went to the door followed by myself when I heard unfamiliar voices talking to Sten. As I approached the door I was aware of two hotel staff (male and female) and two police officers, also male and female. We were advised by the hotel staff that the police had been called due to the level of noise that was coming from our rooms was unacceptable.

Prior to the hotel staff and police officers calling at our room, I understand the police called at the room where Silver and Boris were staying and commented on the number of persons staying in the rooms being in excess of the rooms booked. I am not sure if the police were aware that Lauri, Annela and Eva were in our room.

We assured the hotel staff and police that we would be quiet and were now in the bedroom to sleep. We were asked how many of us were staying in the rooms that had been booked. Sten asked “can we have additional guests in the room” the reply Sten received was “you can have guests, but they will have to pay to stay” So Sten and I went down to the hotel reception to discuss how much more the hotel required for the additional guests. We were advised that the hotel policy was to charge by the number of persons and not by a room rate so an additional cost of €100 was required. The additional amount required was for me and Sten as we were not registered as being residents of the hotel. We said we were willing to pay the additional cost and in view of the late hour could we settle this amount on checking out of the hotel.

The hotel staff and police would not accept this matter being dealt with later in the day and insisted on immediate payment for me and Sten. I went back to the room Silver and Boris were staying in knowing Silver was the only person that would have the amount of cash on him to pay for the additional persons. Silver was sleeping, so I took the €100 cash from his wallet and returned to the hotel reception to settle the additional amount requested. Unfortunately, despite us willing to pay the additional €100 in cash, the hotel staff advised us they were unable to accept cash and needed a credit card for payment. I returned back to Silver and Boris’s room taking one of Silvers credit cards out of his wallet and then waking up Silver for his pin number in order to complete the transaction.

Silver accompanied me to the hotel reception to pay the bill, but the card I removed from his wallet had expired, and was not the original credit card used to book the rooms. Despite this mix up the hotel staff agreed we could settle the bill when we check out later in the day. However, the police gave us only two options insisting we pay the bill or leave the hotel. So we were left with no choice, but to leave the hotel.

Sten explained to the police that we live in Dublin and had all been out for the evening at a Halloween party and been drinking and unable to drive and have know where else to go, other than to stay at the hotel. As an alternative, we were advised by the police to sleep in the car. We were disgusted and so annoyed and upset at being forced out of the hotel to sleep in our car in the car park on a very cold and wintery morning. After a discussion we felt we had no other option than to leave the hotel and drive home back to Dublin.

We went back to the room and packed up our belongings and went to the car. I had a long discussion with Sten about who should drive. Sten was aware I had no experience of driving in Ireland on the left hand side of the road, so he would not let me drive.

We then discussed who was going to sit where insofar as in the front passenger seat was concerned. It was going to be either me or Silver, but as Silver was very sleepy, I got the front passenger seat and Silver, Boris and Lauri were in the back seats.

As we were getting in the car I realised I still had the room key card in my pocket, so Sten stopped at the hotel’s main entrance saying “let’s be good” and returned the key to the hotel reception.

As we set off and started to drive, I realised how pitch black it was outside and it was raining I asked Sten if he was confident we were on the right road. He joked and said “all roads lead to Dublin” we all laughed and then the boys in the back went back to sleep. I continued talking to Sten, when we briefly looked at each other, before realising and seeing the car coming in the opposite direction, I screamed “Sten what are you doing” – The last thing I remember was Sten smiling, his hand holding my arm and the words “I want to be free”

My dearest Sten, you are and will always be free… I Miss You, Kädi

The words of a father trying to come to terms with the loss of his son

Sten never tried to test his sense of direction and always relied on his satellite navigation whether it was to go to the local shops or an unknown location, but on that fatal morning on leaving the hotel the satellite navigation was “locked” and Sten took the wrong road from the hotel back to Dublin.

Unfortunately for Sten the road he took did not go to Dublin, but in the opposite direction on one of the most fatal black spots for road traffic fatalities in Cork that would within 15 minutes of being forced from the hotel would lead to a three car collision resulting in Sten and Lauri being killed, Boris being seriously injured, Kädi, Silver and two others escaping serious injuries.

It is now more than three months since that fatal morning and I still do not have the completed police reports, other than the preliminary cause of the accident was due to my son Sten’s negligence. It is easy for me to say, but for me it is very hard to accept, that there were so many opportunities during the sequence of events Kädi has explained in her letter to me that could have changed the outcome.
This picture was taken by the hotel CCTV, when Sten stopped to return the key to the hotel reception.

As you can see the car’s head lights are clearly visible in front of the hotel’s entrance. Yet despite the police being at the hotel for the last hour and the hotel staff and police knowing my son and his friends had been drinking in the early hours of the morning, I can not, under any circumstances, accept that the police would insist on removing my son and his friends from the hotel without ensuring the car remained in the car park by confiscating the keys. This they failed to do.

Whilst it may not be illegal to sleep off the effects of alcohol in your car when evicted from a hotel, it is my understanding that if the keys are in the ignition and someone is in the driver’s seat, it would be viewed by the police and the courts that it was your intention to drive and you would and should be arrested.

So why did the police not arrest my son knowing the situation that existed, particularly in view of the number of fatal road accidents involving young drivers on the roads of Ireland.

I am sure that opinions will differ in bringing this matter to a conclusion, but the more I think about the sequence of events, the more I believe this accident could have been avoided and knowing my son as well as I did, I am in no doubt Sten had no intention of driving the morning after the night before.

If only the Rochestown Hotel had accepted the cash
If only the Rochestown Hotel had used the same credit card that was used for booking the hotel
If only the hotel staff had not over reacted and called the police
If only the police had not insisted on removing my son and his friends from the hotel
If only the police had acted in a more responsible manner in dealing with late night revellers
If only the police had arrested my son
If only the police had offered an alternative to sleeping in the car
If only the police had confiscated the keys in order to prevent the car being driven.
If only the police had considered the potential risk of a vehicle being driven the morning after the night before
If only the police had taken my son into custody at the station which is 200 metres up the road

I have lost my son and tormented by the words “IF ONLY” which offers me no consolation

I am sure you have all seen the “headlines” but behind those headlines you will find many suffering the same despair I and my family and friends have felt since loosing my beloved and only son Sten at the age of 20 years old

As a caveat “Never Drink and Drive” even if “The Police Turn a Blind Eye”

Please feel free to feed back any thoughts you may have, all comments are greatly appreciated.

Harry
Sten’s Father