We were celebrating. Having a great time, laughing and dancing. Then the night ended and it was time to go home. The freeway was practically empty. One car passed maybe every five minutes. Most of Florida had already gone to bed, but there were still a handful of youngsters enjoying their late night freedom. Unfortunately, for some reckless free spirits decided to take full advantage of their freedom, but pleasure comes at a high price. Traffic was stopped. Almost as fast as we could blink there were 10, 20, 30 cars slowed in front of us. Red lights illuminated the road. Then as we rounded the highway the red lights grew brighter. Then blue lights came. Then another set of red and blue. Red and blue. Blue and red. The two colors flashed and beamed faster and brighter as we got closer. We were forced to merge into the right lane by a snake of orange cones and fire red flares. Our heads turned left. A small grey car balanced like a see-saw on the wall separating the eight lanes of freeway, belly up. We could only imagine the mangled positions the bodies were thrown into after flipping over and landing so unnaturally. “They are dead”. We all thought it and we all knew it. As we drove away we looked back to see three policemen standing, hands on their hips, wondering what they could do now. This was an accident so severe that nearly 25 police cars and maybe 3 ambulance were called to the scene.

The next day, we found out that the driver who passed in the accident was Miguel Angel Tabora, one of Aileen Fortan’s best friends. Aileen sat in the back seat next to me. She had no idea when she stared at the accident that she was in fact staring at her friend, buried underneath thousands of pounds of twisted metal. It’s sad to find out that someone close to you has died. Just the other day you were talking about them or thinking, “I wonder what he is doing right now”. Then they are gone. On the way back to Ojai, I heard of another accident that took three other lives. Then at school the next day, another accident; this one involving motorcycles. How is it that so many people die in such a short amount of time? Every 13 minutes. That’s how often someone dies in a car accident. There’s 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. Calculate that and tell me, will you be next?