3 yrs. old Christmas portrait

Second grade

On the evening of April 16th, 2005, Justin went to a party at a friend's house about a 5 minute drive from home. Justin spent the evening and into the night partying with his friends, drinking, and having a good time. Apparently, some time later in the night, a scuffle of some sort broke out with some other kids. It was nothing major, just some shoving and words being exchanged, but Justin was asked to leave the party and was told to not leave his car or else it would be towed. He was helped to his car by some friends, and it was assumed by them that he was going to be driving to someone else's house a few minutes away. This was sometime after midnight. For some unknown reason though, Justin decided to drive to his cousin's house about 40 minutes away in another city. He took the freeway. Due to his drinking and driving excessively fast, Justin crashed while trying to exit the expressway. He was just 5 minutes from his cousin's house. He died on the morning of April 17th, at the hospital from various internal injuries suffered in the accident.

Justin was like many other kids his age. He thought nothing would happen to him. He thought he could handle driving after leaving a party where he'd been drinking. He made a terrible mistake that night, a mistake that cost him his life and his future. He loved life, he wanted to live. But, like many 18 year olds, he thought he was invincible, that nothing could happen to him, that these things happened to "other" people. He was wrong, and unfortunately he didn't get a second chance to learn from this last mistake.

While Justin left behind a lifetime of wonderful memories shared by all who knew and loved him, because of that last, tragic decision he made to drink and drive, he also left behind a forever grieving mother and father, step-parents, a young sister, step-siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, many cousins, and countless friends.

We urge everyone to never drink and drive under any circumstances. Call a cab, take a bus, call a friend, a parent, someone...anyone, who can safely pick you up and get you safely home. Don't worry, your car will still be there the next day...but, more importantly, you'll be around the next day. 

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 Underage Drinking & Driving
Created by Megan Patterson for Massillon Up Close



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