while we love cars, we should never lose sight that they can be deadly.

last sunday, my girlfriend's only son, Matthew, just 23 coming up on 24, got in his car to drive home in the night after spending some time with friends after work. he drove up i95 n. from fort lauderdale to delray beach. we believe he fell asleep right at his exit, his car probably drifted across the lanes at high speed (the road gently curves left there), and went through a guard rail, down a ditch and hit a tree at full force. he was gone in an instant. i saw the car later at the tow place and i cannot describe it. coincidentally to this forum, it was a 2017 toyota corolla, a car he really liked.

the tragedy of course is this didn't need to happen, but accidents do happen and most of us have driven tired at some point. i read once that driving tired is not much different than driving while intoxicated. falling asleep though, means complete loss of control of course.

i share the story of this fine young man, 6'3 like me, as a cautionary tale for you and your loved ones. he was finding his way, finally loving his studies and finishing up his degree at FAU while also working full time at JetBlue, a job he loved. he loved the miami dolphins (not sure why ha), the musician drake, and theme parks... he worked for a few years at universal theme parks and loved it and learned so much.

more info about Matthew and tribute video:
https://www.robertsfunerals.com/noti...Robert-Proctor

stay safe all.

 

 

We will never know exactly what happened. But no signs of slowing down at all were a clue.

 

Condolences to you, your girlfriend and all of the family. A sad story indeed.

 

Very sad, my condolences. Going to be tough times for you.

 

Sorry to hear that, bit......my condolences to both you and your girl friend. From the sound of it, Matthew could (maybe) have been your future son-in-law.

Not that it makes any difference as far as the crash is concerned, but, just for the record, you say he was in a 2017 Corolla? The media reports (and the Florida Highway Patrol) say it was a Camry.

http://cbs12.com/news/local/orlando-...ay-beach-crash

https://florida.liveuamap.com/en/201...day-in-a-crash

Given the description in the article (gentle curve, I-95, Delray Beach at Atlantic Ave., northbound, down a slope, into trees), I think this is probably the crash site:

https://www.google.com/maps/@26.4589.../data=!3m1!1e3

 

Oh Paul...

My deepest condolences... No parent should ever outlive their child. Deepest sympathies and love to you and yours. If there is anything you guys need, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

step son, but i know what you meant.

they're wrong it was a corolla, but given the damage to the car, one can be forgiven not knowing exactly what is was, and the media just go of the fhp report.

thanks for that link, that's an interesting 3d visual i'd not seen and probably right around there, yes. the car had a lot of tree debris embedded. my girlfriend's cousin knows where it happened now, but i've not yet talked to her about it.

 

thanks man...

 

Wow this is terrible. Sending positive thoughts to you and your GF's family.

Doesn't the '17+ Corolla have standard Lane Departure Alert and Pre-Collision System? Not that it could have prevented this, but perhaps mitigate the collision and reduce the impact.

 

Yeah, I've seen that before. Some reporters have little or no idea what vehicle it is they are looking at...especially if there is extensive damage to it.

Do you know if Matthew was belted in properly, and the air bags went off like they were supposed to? If working properly, of course, those two items can save a lot of lives. That info is often in police reports, but not always made public.


Yes, poor lady.....she's probably grieving, and doesn't want to talk much about it. She will definitely be in my prayers....will offer her up at this evening's Mass.

 

I am sorry about your loss Bit, way too young.

When I was in college I had a full time job with really bad hours, had to beat work at 4am most mornings so I had to leave home a little after 3am. I thought I was young and in shape and can handle the full time job and going to college full time but I should have known better, my uncle and my cousin moved in to the place I was staying at when I started work which made things much worse. My cousin gave out my home number to his friends(even though he had a cell phone) and his friends would call him up to 11pm at night so I would get woken up and could not get back to sleep and did not want to be that guy to tell my cousin to stop having people call the house at night so I got very little to almost no sleep for days/nights on end. After a few months I got transferred to different office that was even further away, I was driving dead tired and had a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open but I was only about ten minutes away so I figured what else I am I going to do, I must have let my eyes close from just 2 or 3 seconds and my car drifted to the side to the rumble strips, I jolted awake and straightened the car out but it scared me so much, my heart was racing after that and I could not believe that happened to me. I went right in and told my supervisor this is my last week, can't do this and college and that was it. I unplugged the phone at night when I got home and told my cousin not to give my number out or have your friends call the house at night. Very scary, I was lucky.

 

There are times I get sleepy at the wheel on long drives and this is a sad reminder to stop and rest.

Sincerest condolences.

 

my purpose in posting this thread was not to analyze what happened in my girlfriend's son's case.

UDel and corradoMR2 thank you for sharing your experiences. i think most of us have driven tired and perhaps many have had scary moments, i know i have.

my purpose in posting this thread was so that hopefully we don't have another thread like this.

 

My condolences to you and your family