Accident takes life of student who once protested Bush by simulating death by an imaginary bombs

Columbia, Missouri Daily Tribune ^ | staff

[rface]

Columbia, MISSOURI:

Melissa Howland believed in life so much so that she imitated death during a spring protest to warn of war’s deadly effects.

Joined by other local opponents of the Iraq war, she dropped to the ground that day in March to simulate victims of bombing. Around her neck hung a sign that read "PEACE."

A head-on accident at 4:40 p.m. yesterday ended the life of Howland, a 2003 graduate of Hickman High and a freshman at Stephens College.

She was 18.

The state highway patrol said Howland was driving west into Columbia on Route WW when her Ford Ranger pickup crossed the centerline and struck a Chevy ¾-ton pickup heading east.

The driver of the other pickup, 27-year-old Stephen Cornelison of Columbia, was listed in good condition this morning at University Hospital. A trooper estimated that both pickups were driving 45 mph.

Howland was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. She was the 994th person to die on Missouri roads this year.

In June, Howland graduated from Hickman High School.

She began taking English courses in August at Stephens College, where she received a presidential scholarship for academic achievement and a leadership award for extracurricular activities and community service.

Howland was the daughter of Jane and John Howland of Columbia.

[rface]

Very sad, but I wonder why it is important that she was a protestor?

I suspect that Melissa Howland was looked up to by those that she hung around with. She was probably a big shot among the appeasment crowd

[Chewbacca]

Wow. More deaths on the roads of Missouri than in the entire Iraq war and after the end of major hostilities.

I guess we need to ban automobiles because of all the death they cause.