I'm here to tell the story of how my life-long friend was killed by a drunk driver and how I survived the same event. I also want to share with you how I made it through the mental & physical pain, the depression, the ongoing recovery. The biggest reason for me doing this is to let others know they are not alone. I survived the head-on collision, the hospital stay of many months, the learning to speak & walk again, the going back to high school to finish my sophomore year, and the learning who my real friends were. It was a really dark time for me that I've survived so far. It has been 25 plus years and I am still healing physically & mentally. I am not a writer. I tried to be a writer long ago. I apologize for any grammar, punctuation, or amateur mistakes because I'm an amateur. I'm writing this WPS office and copying it to Steemit so I hope to keep those kind of errors to a minimum. I'll start off with the accident and go from there. Everything I write here is either what I saw or from reliable witnesses. If I need to jump around to explain something I'll try to label it so I don't get too confusing. :-) If you have any questions or comments please reply or Private Message on Facebook @TroyB42 and I will answer them ASAP. I'll also try to write in sections so that, for my own well being, I don't relive the events too much at a time. I Thank you for your patience.
December 23rd, 1989, 10:55pm @I-29 & North 64th Street, Kansas City, Missouri
John is my best friend. He was driving us home from my sisters house on the coldest, iciest night of the Winter season when we were bumped into by another driver at a stop sign. The driver was nice and apologetic so we all smiled that we were all ok and just went on. We drove another half mile up the road just happy that we were fine when a 1980's Blue Ford Station Wagon came flying over a dogleg hill and landed it's front tires onto the hood of John's 1980's Oldsmobile. The dash came down onto us and pushed the steering wheel through John, killing him instantly. I was trapped under the dash with a broken left leg, a closed head injury, and lots of cuts from the flying glass and metal. John lay bloody and motionless next to me. Our car spun several times from the impact and stopped on the lawn of the local Fire Station. Lucky for me the Firemen were in and they ran out to help before the car stopped. They started trying to save me & John in negative degree weather before they could even get fully dressed. One fireman was in his socks in the snow trying to help us. They realized the doors were crumpled so they couldn't be opened the normal way so they pulled out their Jaws-Of-Life and cut us out. While this was happening, the driver that landed on us had jumped out of his car, leaving his girlfriend and brother trapped, and started screaming in a drunken slur that it was our fault because we had our brights on. Two firemen took him into custody while others helped his passengers. I was wrapped in blankets while the fire chief blocked my view of John. She was trying to be very compassionate. Luckily the ambulance was parked in the Fire Station parking lot so I was taken there and on to the hospital. I was told later on that the Drunk kept screaming that he was innocent and it was John's fault. I passed out from my injuries as the ambulance pulled into the emergency room entrance. I went into a pain-induced coma for about 13 days. I was able to move my hand after six days in the coma but nothing else. I missed John's funeral. I missed the Drunk being brought to the same hospital for minimal scratches before being taken to jail. I missed Christmas & New Years Day.
(I'll continue on a little later)