I grew up in Central Cali, a farm area fed by a series of canals of water from Mt. Shasta. Most of the roads (ones only locals know exist) run along side the canals, and many times cross over them. In fact the prison in Corcoran (the one housing Charles Manson) has a moot around it.
Every year someone drives off the road (very easy to do) ...into the water and drown. The canals are fairly shallow...but few if ever have survived the plunge. I fear them...and a few years ago I was following my brother back from some business we had in the valley when he almost took the dive! Just a few inches short of plunging in... Thank god, we are both swimmers, but I doubt it would have helped much.
Kennedy, I am sure faced this similar fear when his car lay in the ditch with a person trapped in his car drowning (it only takes a few minutes or less). He couldn't do anything about it, freaked, panicked and made some wrong decisions under duress. But there is no way he planned this accident...he simply drove off the road.
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"All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really ONE."
Lakota leader Black Elk