The Night My Best Friend Lost His Life
It was a Saturday night and we were at a car expo celebrating that Alfredo was going to graduate soon. There was over a hundred cars at the exposition that night. Alfredo was like a kid in a candy shop, so happy with all the different types of vehicles that were there. I had never seen him smile like he was smiling that night, from ear to ear. Turning away from my friend Alfredo, I heard a thump, glass breaking and the sound of tires screeching. Everything moved in slow motion after this.
I saw “stuff” flying around, but it did not connect in my head that it could be people.
My boyfriend seeing the danger tugged at my arm telling me, “let’s GO!”
I do not know what it was, but something kept me rooted in place.
I said, “NO, where is Alfredo? We have to wait for him!”
I looked over my left shoulder seeing something white on the floor, and remembering Alfredo was wearing a white shirt, I started walking towards the white thing on the concrete road. As I got there I realized it was a body, so we flipped it around and saw Alfredo. He had been dragged a couple hundred feet under the pickup truck of a drunk driver who was driving with his headlights off.
One of his shoes was hundreds of feet away from his body, his pants were ripped halfway off exposing his basketball shorts. His “Drift King” shirt was shred to pieces. His arm was completely popped out of place, his elbow was facing up instead of towards the back of his body. There was so much blood around his face and one of his eyes was bulging out as he lay there unconscious. I felt my world crashing down on me, my best friend was lying in a pool of his own blood, unconscious.
The next thing I remember is asking, “is he dead? I know he is, just tell me already.”
The white sheet went over his body, but I still did not want to believe it. This drunk driver who killed two people that night only got a sentence of four years and it took over two years to reach this verdict. According to the MADD website, the jail time for California could have been up to ten years but this man who killed two people only got four years. In the AV Press it said, “Richardson, booked on suspicion of multiple felony counts of hit-and-run driving, was released from jail the next day on $50,000 bail.” I was sixteen and every time I closed my eyes, I saw Alfredo lying in a pool of his blood, the sound of those tires screeching and people flying like rag dolls. A piece of me died that day. Drunk Driving kills. It needs to stop!
It was a Saturday night and we were at a car expo celebrating that Alfredo was going to graduate soon. There was over a hundred cars at the exposition that night. Alfredo was like a kid in a candy shop, so happy with all the different types of vehicles that were there. I had never seen him smile like he was smiling that night, from ear to ear. Turning away from my friend Alfredo, I heard a thump, glass breaking and the sound of tires screeching. Everything moved in slow motion after this.
I saw “stuff” flying around, but it did not connect in my head that it could be people.
My boyfriend seeing the danger tugged at my arm telling me, “let’s GO!”
I do not know what it was, but something kept me rooted in place.
I said, “NO, where is Alfredo? We have to wait for him!”
I looked over my left shoulder seeing something white on the floor, and remembering Alfredo was wearing a white shirt, I started walking towards the white thing on the concrete road. As I got there I realized it was a body, so we flipped it around and saw Alfredo. He had been dragged a couple hundred feet under the pickup truck of a drunk driver who was driving with his headlights off.
One of his shoes was hundreds of feet away from his body, his pants were ripped halfway off exposing his basketball shorts. His “Drift King” shirt was shred to pieces. His arm was completely popped out of place, his elbow was facing up instead of towards the back of his body. There was so much blood around his face and one of his eyes was bulging out as he lay there unconscious. I felt my world crashing down on me, my best friend was lying in a pool of his own blood, unconscious.
The next thing I remember is asking, “is he dead? I know he is, just tell me already.”
The white sheet went over his body, but I still did not want to believe it. This drunk driver who killed two people that night only got a sentence of four years and it took over two years to reach this verdict. According to the MADD website, the jail time for California could have been up to ten years but this man who killed two people only got four years. In the AV Press it said, “Richardson, booked on suspicion of multiple felony counts of hit-and-run driving, was released from jail the next day on $50,000 bail.” I was sixteen and every time I closed my eyes, I saw Alfredo lying in a pool of his blood, the sound of those tires screeching and people flying like rag dolls. A piece of me died that day. Drunk Driving kills. It needs to stop!