Prom should end with memories – not sirens. (4/25/25)

When we arrived, it was chaos. The two cars were a tangled mess of metal. I could hear muffled cries and someone calling for help. I moved quickly to the vehicle on the left, where a girl in a prom dress was slumped over in the passenger seat. Her eyes were closed, her chest wasn’t rising. I checked for a pulse, but it was already too late. The driver, a young guy, was semi-conscious, his face covered in blood, but he was still breathing, still alive. There was no time to think about anything except saving who we could.

The other car was just as bad. The driver was pinned, his body contorted in ways that made it clear he wouldn’t make it. I did what I could, stabilizing the one survivor, but all the while, my mind kept going back to the prom. Their night, their celebration of something that should’ve been happy, had turned into this. I couldn’t help but think about how young they were. It’s moments like this that leave a mark, even when you’re trained to stay focused.

Special moments deserve to be remembered—so take a moment beforehand to talk about how to stay safe on the road.