Yesterday on April 4th, the grade 10 and 11 students from our school got the opportunity to speak to John Westhaver and have him tell his story about the brutal car crash he was in, which resulted in the death of 3 of his good friends.

In April 1994 John was in the passenger seat of his friend’s car. Although the designated driver was completely sober he was speeding to get home and was driving at 125 miles per hour in a 60 zone, and came across a corner and didn’t stop in time. The car went flying forward and crashed into a telephone pole where the car had caught on fire. Luckily John managed to escape the car but his friends were not as lucky. The driver had been ejected out of the car before hand and his two friends were left in the backseat unable to escape. Luckily paramedics rushed to the scene and managed to get John to safety but by no means was his journey in the hospital easy. He was covered in bandages for months and died three times undergoing his surgery, but luckily ended up surviving.

During his presentation all the students listened carefully as it definitely impacted us to hear his story. John goes on today traveling across British Columbia (on behalf of ICBC’s program to improve road safety) hoping to inform students how not to have the same problems he did.