Written Testimonials

the one who never got a chance my best friend was smart funny and at the time my boyfriend. we were only in the fifth grade but to us we were serious. as a single mom his mother was not very responsible being only a teenager herself. she was a wreck less driver and didn't have a care in the world about her two young children. one year a few days before christmas she took them to a party with her. on the way home she was not paying attention to the road because she was drunk. they hit a guard rail by a train track and my friend was thrown from the car. he was killed on contact and his sister badly injured. she was never charged and he never got the chance to be a teenager. never could attempt to be a safe driver. i just want to warn teens now how important it is to be safe now. it could save people in the future. maybe if she had learned to be a safe driver when she was our age she wouldn't have killed her only son! please be careful don't cause a heart-ache to someone like the one i have to live with everyday. be safe!!!! - Evina [ Marble Falls, TX ]

big trucks my grandparents were driving an 18 wheeler and had a wreck. Both lived because they had their seatbelt on. they would have been ejected if they were not restrained. only a little bit of damage was caused to them but there was no truck to see after the wreck. so seatbelts will save your life - acw [ Lubbock, TX ]

in one moment in a single moment i lost my best friend. His name was Kenneth Bryce Vineyard. Kenneth and a friend went to do a quick favor and there life changed in moments. Louis lives everyday with the memory of his best friend being ejected from a car. Losing one teen in our school has greatly affected us. please just remeber to buckle up it could make the diffrence even if u are just going across a parking lot something can happen - Amanda [ Lubbock, TX ]

Kenneth I lost my son on 9/15/06 in a car accident at Roosevelt High School during a Friday night game. He and a friend were going to get the car pulled around for his friends grandmother and were coming down a dirt road behind the school that was very narrow. Kenneth had no seatbelt on. We are not sure what happened yet but we think that they were met by another car and got pushed off the road. The suburban they were in went off and flipped twice. Kenneth was thrown out of the window and the suburban was on top of him. He was doing a good thing and was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and thought since they were in the parking lot he did not need a seat belt. He lost his life that night and is now with the big guy upstairs. This is very hard for me and the only thing that keeps me going is that he was saved and baptized three weeks before hand. He had totally changed his life around and was walking the walk and talking the talk. He has changed lots of lifes from his testimony about being saved before he died and now even more. So if you dont think it could happen to you it doesnt matter how far you are going I didnt think it could happen either. - Lisa [ Lubbock, TX ]

Wake Up Call So it started as me and my friends were gonna go out and drink and have some fun. At the end of the night knowing that I was way too intoxicated to drive I refused to stay and drove home with my friend not only putting my life in danger but his also. One stop sign away from my house I fell asleep at the wheel and hit a car. I thank god that none of us were hurt. Now I think and wish I could just take everything back.

I got lucky, what if I would of hit an actual person or the accident was a lot worse than what it was. When i think about what happened it just makes me sad.

So I'm asking if you're going to go out and drink, call somebody for a ride or don't leave, stay where you're at.

Better yet just DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE. - Phillip [ San Antonio, TX ]

Street Racing It was 1 pm and I was almost home from school wich was an hour away from my house. I was driving perfectly with the windows up cruising. I remember that I looked up at the mirror and saw a 2001 Toyota Celica flashing its lights wanting me to race. The Celica approached my Integra and started reving his motor. I looked at him and he's telling me to race so i just ignored him. He slowed down to get in my lane and started flashing his lights again hoping for me to put my emergency lights on to race. So then he approached me again and wouldn't stop messing with me so I decided to race him for him to leave me alone. We started racing at a 40 mph roll and I was one foot behind. I let second gear go to 60 mph when I noticed that I was half a car ahead of him so I saw that I was almost over revving, I shifted to third gear. I was going 80 when I shifted and then I shifted to fourth gear when I reached 90. All of the sudden I noticed that the Celica was getting too close to my car so i kinda pulled over a bit to the emergency lane so he wouldn't hit my car. He got the point and went back to his lane and i went over to my lane. I was going about 115 mph when i noticed again that he was going to my lane this time it was too late for me to move over he was scraping my driver's side with his car. When I finally moved over to the emergency lane he went back to his lane. I looked at the guages and was going 120 when he went to my lane this time i wasn't that lucky my car started swerving and i tried to control the car but i lost control and had hit a cement light post. All i remember after the wreck was that the whole front car was smushed and that I got out thru the window i couldn't believe I was ok. I sat down 3 yards from my car and waited for an ambulance to come. After that day I haven't street raced again... - Abel [ Dorado, PR - Now H-town, TX ]

One cold night It was about 5 or 6 years ago on a cold night...I had heard my dad say that there was a wreck in Destin and I didn't understand what he was talking about...A little after that everyone kept on calling and asked if it was him? I didn't know who "HIM" was and later that day my dad told me that the wreck was a drunk man that had hit someone and they haven't revealed the identity yet but it might be your uncle Charles...Well later that night about 10:00 the news came on with who the man was...It was indeed my uncle...He was walking across the highway from a bar when not to far down the road a man that had just left a bar came flying down the road and ran up on the sidewalk and hit my uncle...After they identified who he was I couldn't believe it. You never know what is going to happen in the next split second until it is to late...I still have hatred in my heart...because the man did not get punished...He got a "slap on the wrist" and probation...But he will have to live with this for the rest of his life...Since that day I vowed to never drink and drive...I don't care where I am....So please do us all a favor and don't get behind the wheel while you are drunk....I don't care if you had just a sip of one...Just don't... - Heather [ Crestview, FL ]

donuts aren't just things u eat when i was four, my sis 6, my grandma was driving to arizona with me and my sis in the back and my dad was in the passenger's seat. my grandma turned wrong while speeding down the highway and we did at least two or three donuts....my dad said that he flung himself on top of us in the back in order to protect us....i don't know what would have happened if he died because of it....so i hope that yall will not speed and decide too late to make a sharp turn. it may be ur last. - MM [ La Vernia, TX ]

Sarah's Story On may 12, 2004 almost 2 years ago, i was driving home after a day of shopping and having fun. i was very happy that day. the sun was shining, the windows were down, and the radio was blasting. i had not a care in the world. i was driving home, and i crested the hill.

then i saw him. directly in my lane. no moment to react. no time to turn the wheel. we hit head on. i don't know how long I had passed out when i finally woke up, but i do know that my legs were crushed in the undercarriage, and i couldn't move my legs. i started screaming, to no one in particular, just anyone who might hear me and pull me out. but mostly to jesus. i remember screaming help me god. then it happened.

i heard something in the engine ignite. now the car was on fire. and i was trapped. my knee was dislocated but i just kept pulling and pulling struggling to break free and get out. no luck. by now the flames were to the windshield. i thought i was going to be burned alive. thick black smoke was entering my lungs with every scream, and every breathe. i slid under the steering wheel, and opened my passenger door and there he was. my hero whose name i didn't even know for so long. Tim reluctantly pulled me out, he was hesitant to do it because he didn't know what was broken and he didn't want to hurt me any further. but i told him it was just my legs and he pulled me out. then i was dragged down the road, as the place where i was just sitting, moments ago, was engulfed in flames. i did not cry. not once as i was waiting for help. but how i didn't is not known to me, because as i was laying there, i heard screams that were not my own. screams coming from the other car!

a man. he could not get out. the door was jammed in and it had sliced his side. the beer bottle between his legs had broken and severed his testicles. bits of them were found later at the garage, lying in the seat. no one could get him out. i had to lie there waiting for the ambulance, my ears filled with the screams and moaning of a dying man. he never even made it to the hospital.

the ambulance came and took me to the hospital. they had not restrained my legs so every bump we hit my legs would fly into the air. it was horrible. they were rolling me down the corridor on a stretcher, i turned my head to one of the women and i asked, "Am i going to die?" she looked at me for just a moment, and just simply said " i dont know." no comforting words.. no reassurance that i would be fine.

the helicopter came, and i was taken to another hospital in Indianapolis. they were very kind, and very reassuring. so lovely. i got there, and they had to set my legs. my mother, lynn bobbie, and sandy, had told me that it was probably just as painful to hear as it was to feel. apparently i was screaming again. i don't remember the pain though. so we finally learned the extent of my injuries.

2 broken femurs. one was clean in half. crushed right heel and ankle. crushed so badly that they couldnt even remove all the little tiny bone fragments. broken metatarsals on my left foot, with a fractured big toe. a dislocated left knee. a huge gash down the bone on my right knee. 3 fractured vertebrae. cracked hip. a ruptured spleen. all my leg muscles had atrophied. not to mention the huge bruises and other cuts.

i spent 2 full weeks there. on my last day the physical therapist came to arrange where i would go. he wanted to send me to a nursing home, given the extent of my injuries. i said forget that. i'm going home. and so i did. my mother slept on the couch beside me for a very long time, since i had to have pain pills every few hours. and i had to use the bathroom alot. how humiliating it is to have to use a potty chair. to not be able to go to the bathroom.

i had to use a machine 8 hours a day stretching my knees, as i couldn't bend them. after about 5 months of that, which puts us at about sept/oct... i finally was allowed to stand for the first time.

i had a wheelchair too. just imagine, lying in bed... day after day after day. to not be able to just get up and go outside. or to look at something across the room that you want and not being able to just go and get it. this was the worst part about being handicapped.

fast forward today almost 2 years later. im still undergoing surgeries, but only have 3 left. 2 years in prison because of one man's ignorance, whom i'll never meet. my life was ripped from me. my future was ripped from me. and in the end, even my friends were ripped from me. except for those who remain loyal. the ones who have sacrificed so much just to keep me happy. it is a harsh reality to realize that the people who meant so much to you, don't give a damn about you. i have lost so much throughout this experience. but i have gained much more.

Dont drink and drive. Please. - Sarah [ Brazil, IN ]

Fourth of July It was the fourth of July and my friends and I were all out partying in the desert. We were setting off fireworks and having a grand ol' time. That night I went home and fell asleep. The next day I heard that a girl from a neighboring high school had gotten in a real bad accident leaving the same desert spot I was at the previous night. She was a passenger in a truck with two other kids. All three kids were intoxicated but Pamela wasn't wearing her seat belt. The driver lost control of the truck and Pamela flew out and the truck landed on her preventing it from rolling more. She was in a coma for about a week and then passed away. It was supposed to be a holiday to celebrate, but for the community of teenagers it was a day that will be remembered because of Pamela. It really hit hard because something that tragic could happen to anyone... me, my best friend, or my sister. It really makes you ponder. - LD [ El Paso, TX ]

Not so Good Having Fun My friend was at a party and he was having lots of fun and drinking. They were on the way back home and his best friend took the back roads, he thought it would be faster. What he didn't know was that there was a bus around the corner, so he took the curve and didn't look both ways. And before they knew it their motor was sitting in their laps. And my friend passed away in this fatal accident. - KC [ Louise, TX ]

Not So Happy Birthday After a football game not even 6 months ago, me and a group of my friends went to a concert at the county fairgrounds. After the concert we didn't have to be home for another hour and a half so we decided to go out to a party on some of the back roads. On the way home I was supposed to ride with 5 other girls but my boyfriend at the time told me he didn't mind being late and that he would take me to my friend's house; I'm so thankful he did.

My other friends called me after we had sat in the driveway for probably 10-15 minutes.

"We've had a wreck! Get back over here now!" I thought she was joking, "oh come on get over here, {my boyfriend} needs to get home!" I told her jokingly.

"I'm not kidding. Hurry...I'm scared!" Whenever she said she was scared I knew she wasn't kidding, she's never scared.

As we drove up to the scene we realized that this wasn't just a little fender bender...their Trailblazer that was once a full size SUV looked like it was smaller than a compact car.

We never thought that a simple "Happy Birthday Sleepover" would be spent all night at the local hospital. One of our friends died in that accident. It's so hard for us with her not being here. She was the sophomore class president; she played basketball, volleyball and plenty of other sports. - AN [ Louise, TX ]

The People That Were so Close to Me One day one of my friends was driving home one Friday night with some of his friends and it was hailing really bad. When he came around this really big sharp curve, they wrecked and they hit a tree. Somebody tried to help him so he would not die but after somebody pulled him out, he died. Yes, everybody misses him but he will always be in our hearts from now until forever. Stevie was really special to all of us and he will always be in our hearts. I miss seeing him in 4th block and hearing all of his stories and seeing all of his smiles. He was a really cool friend to me and to everybody else. I have known him ever since he was 11 or 10 years old and he would have gotten to graduate May of 2003 but he did not get to. We all still cry over him every night and day. We all miss him very much it is not the same around here at school or at home or anywhere else.

Thank you for reading my story - Riki [ TN ]

That Red Spot When I was in high school, more than a few years ago, I went to work and my supervisor didn't show up. She was a year older than me and we had a lot of good times on the job. We had argued the day before and I didn't get a chance to apologize for it. Her and four other people were coming into town from Floresville, and got into a bad wreck. They said she wasn't drunk, but the rest of them were. She was in the back seat -- none of them had seat belts on -- and when the car flipped over on the open road because the driver was too drunk to react to a simple turn in the road, she was thrown out of the window and killed.

Now four people that were in the car have to live with that for the rest of their lives, knowing that if they had been responsible and not driven under the influence, she might be here today.

As for me, the next day I went out to the location of the accident with a few friends, and I got to apologize to all that was left of her. But now 15 years later I still remember that and don't even think about driving after drinking. I gave up drinking altogether, because it only hurts you or someone you love.

Every time I get in my car and buckle my seat belt, making sure everyone in the car has theirs on before I drive away, there is one thing on my mind so vivid I had to tell you about: the red spot on the road.

Please don't take that chance.

- Neal [ San Antonio, TX ]

The Long Drive Home About three years ago, my sister and I were involved in a serious car wreck. We were on our way home from Calallen, which is just outside of Corpus Christi; we would have dance practice with this lady from there, but she wasn't home that day. On our way home, we came to a four way stop, my sister turned when she didn't have the right of way and a truck rammed straight into her side and pushed her on top of me. The truck pushed us all the way off the road into a small ditch. I had to be taken by halo flight to the hospital because my heart wasn't beating. They had to use the "jaws of life" to get my sister out of the car. Her pelvic bone had been shattered and she also broke a few bones in her left arm and ankle. Both sides of my jaw were broken, My spleen was ruptured, and a blood vessel on the right side of my head popped causing the whole left side of my body to go numb. I was in a coma for about 2 weeks, and my sister was in one for about 1 week. While in the hospital, my heart stopped beating two different times. My sister and I shouldn't be alive; it's a miracle that we are, and I thank God that we are every day. Not everybody gets away with "careless" driving like we did, and that's a lot of the reason why I chose to get involved with this organization. I really believe that if enough people, especially teens, know about the dangers of driving recklessly they'll start to drive safer.

- MG [ San Antonio, TX ]

One Long Day It has been over 11 years since the day my best friend was involved in a very bad car crash. I remember him not showing up in the morning to class. I remember the announcement to teachers to not count students late due the closure of the road leading to the school due to a very serious crash. While I had put things together in my head, it wasn't until lunch that I had found out for sure that my friend was in the crash. He had suffered several internal injuries and it was unknown if he would make it through the night. I can remember as if it were yesterday the cold, shaking feeling that came over me, the fear, the worrying, the anger. My parents went that night to check in on him in the hospital (I was not old enough to go to the ICU). They told me it looked like his parents aged 10 years in a day. The next morning came and we found out not only that he had made it, but was improving...it looked like he was going to be okay. People at school who barely knew him were coming up to me to ask about how he was doing.. all were generally concerned... all had this expression on their face that said, "That could have been me." Years have now passed and my friend recovered and graduated and went on to college. Later he got married. He was lucky. But to this day every time I pass the spot where the crash occurred I think about it and I think that it could have turned out another way.

- MJ [ San Antonio, TX ]