Name: Drew Martinez
From: Castle Rock, CO
Votes: 0

The Night that Everything Changed

Stepping into a car is one of the most serious challenges and responsibilities that many will have to uphold when they turn sixteen. Each person has a decision to start their car and how to drive. On the night of November 15, 2019, my family’s and my life was changed forever, to affect us to this very day in the way we drive everyday.

My sister Erin Martinez was a freshman in college attending Colorado State University for civil engineering. She was fearless and brave to everyone that surrounded her. On the weekend of the 15th, Erin came home to visit my family and I, as we were all very close and had not seen her since she left that September. Like every other night we stayed up talking about our futures, our hopes, and our new lives with everything going on in the world.Further on into the night, Erin and I went our own separate ways to see our friends. The last image I have of Erin before she left was her smiling coming up to me to hug me before she left to go see her friend Owen Casey. Even if the middle of the night her beauty shined through, I could see her in slow motion turning away with one of the biggest smiles I have seen on her face. I felt her happiness and could not wait for more time we would spend together that weekend.

That night felt different. In my heart I knew something was wrong but tried living how I normally would. I would later open the car with my friends, not caring what roads we drove on, how fast, the same for my sister. At 9:30 I got a call from my dad, when I picked up the phone I could hear his heart breaking, hearing his voice slow and exhausted. This was the second time I had heard my dad cry in my life, my best friend, my loving sister was hit head on by a DUI driver. She was coming back to Castle Rock with her friend Owen, on a two lane highway when a DUI driver hit her head on going twice the speed limit. He was running from cops when he pulled out behind a truck to try and pass but did not see my sister’s car. Immediately I fell to the ground, my friends started to run towards me yelling and shouting. On the way to the hospital all I could do was look at the speed of my friend’s car, look at the things surrounding us shaking in fear of the responsibility that each person has. Erin spent the next two weeks in the hospital, she got out the day of Thanksgiving. Everyone that walked through those hospital doors told my family how lucky we were that she survived. Even though there were many scars mentally and physically through the wreck, she woke up.

After that night, my family changed the way that we looked at life but also the amount of responsibility life takes. Each time we step into a car now we fully adjust and set ourselves up to the best of our ability. Each minute, I look at my mirrors, watch my speed and prepare myself for what other cars can do around me. I put my phone down, I pull over to text if it is an emergency and make the best decisions I can. My friends know me as the one to drive, and all understand that I will drive to protect anybody in my way. Erin’s car accident was a blessing in disguise. Not only to my sister, helping her grow into a beautiful soul but truly showed us that we all take life for granted. While the DUI driver had made a lot of mistakes that night, it showed us the full responsibility and attention it takes to drive. The amount of safety, because before your eyes your whole world can be taken away from you.