Just about everybody likes a good practical joke.

Unfortunately these jokes have a bad reputation because they hurt people. A joke at an Interstate-57 overpass killed a 57-year-old construction worker who lived in Chicago.

According to a story in The Chicago Tribune, Charles Layfield died when a piece of concrete struck his head and chest. Layfield was a passenger in a pickup truck, and the piece of concrete apparently was hurled from an overpass.

According to the Tribune, three high school students from Steger, Ill., are charged with throwing the football-size piece of concrete off the overpass. Investigators believe the youths had been playing a “hit and miss” game since August—throwing pieces off the overpass as vehicles passed underneath. The game came to a tragic end Friday.

The incident serves as a grim reminder of the tragedy that can occur when joke and game playing gets out of hand.

Many NIU students can relate to the dangers of outrageous game playing—game playing such as “quarters” in which participants engage in excessive drinking. How many times have you seen students taken to hospitals after they lost the game?

How many deaths have resulted when persons who played get drunk and try to drive home? How many accidents have been caused by drivers who wanted to see how fast their cars would go or took other risks when driving? And how many accidents are caused by people who throw things at passing vehicles as a practical joke?

People must remember that automobiles are made for transportation, not jokes.