Late at night, sleepy at the wheel

Imagine you’re making a long nine-hour drive and you’ve just spent the entire weekend staying up late with friends that you haven’t seen in a long time. You’re alone, it’s starting to get dark outside, and the lack of sleep is starting to catch up to you.

You think, “maybe I’ll pull out my phone to make a call, that’ll keep me awake.” Before you know what’s happening, you’ve crossed over the yellow line into oncoming traffic – and then nothing.

You may think that something like this only happens in the movies, but in real life, it happens to real people.

For Kristen, losing her cousin unexpectedly was as real as it gets. “On October 25, 2009 one of the most wonderful people that was ever put in my life was killed by a car accident.” Read the rest of her story (and others like hers) on our written story page.