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car accident

Friendship

After lonely 97-year-old man crashed into her car, they developed an unexpected friendship

"That was an accident that needed to happen❤️"

iamdonshay/TikTok

Destiny Smith and Jim, 97, became friends after he crashed into her car.

Fender benders rarely turn into positive things. But for Destiny Smith and 97-year-old Jim, a minor car accident between them began a beautiful friendship.

In a compilation video shared by Seen.TVof TikTok videos shared on Smith's account (@Iamdonshay), she explains that back in September 2024, Jim rear-ended her car while she was leaving church. After talking with him, it was clear to Smith that Jim was struggling.

It was a minor accident, and she learned that he had no insurance or driver's license. She also learned that he was 97 years old. "But honestly I was just really worried because he was swerving everywhere. And then after he hit me I got out and asked him if he was okay," she shared. Jim told her he was, and that he was just trying to go home.

After talking more, the two realized they lived just two minutes away from each other. Smith vowed to Jim that she would "come check up on" him. As the video continues, Smith asks more about Jim's living situation. She learns that he lives alone, and that he doesn't have any kids or relatives nearby.

"Who helps you?" Smith asks him, and he replies, "Nobody." It's an answer that didn't sit well with Smith. "I'm so sorry," she tells him. Smith sought advice on how to help Jim from her social media followers, who she thanks for their insight.

@iamdonshay

Replying to @Nicole I am so thankful to everyone who donated to Jim registry. Now he has a mattress topper that is more comfortable for his back and lots of other essentials ♥️

"He is now going to have aides. I spoke with a social worker. It's all just gonna work out," she says in the video. "It's all gonna work out for Jim, and I'm so excited, because he's not gonna be alone anymore." Specifically, Smith shared in another video that she was able to get Jim assistance from the county, and that nurses will come to his home to help care for him.

Since then, Smith has remained a steady part of Jim's life. She visits him often, checks up on him, takes him out to meals, and also celebrated his birthday together.

In a more in-depth video, Smith told her followers more about Jim's story. "He's 97. He's outlived a lot of his family members. His brother and his wife recently passed away, and they never had children," she says. "He's really sweet."

@iamdonshay

Yall asked to see Jim when he was younger… here he is 😇😇

Smith's followers have praised her for her care and concern for Jim. One viewer commented, "Both of you were definitely meant to cross paths. This is so beautiful of you 🥺," and Smith replied, "Thank you so much! 🥰 thanks to God we did! I was very determined to get him help♥️."

Another added, "you're his new granddaughter." And one more wrote, "you are such a kind person 🥺❤️this has me tearing up." An especially touched viewer added, "You are literally heaven sent 🙏thank you for watching out for him & his wellbeing."

Viewers are also obsessed with their unique friendship: "I just love how y’all formed a relationship he needed you🫶🏾🙏🏽," one viewer wrote, and Smith replied, "I love him 🥰🥰🥰."

Another viewer commented, "Dynamic Duo."

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Family

Grieving father explains why he's changing the way he talks about his teen son's death

"We are doing this the wrong way."

David Booth/Facebook

David Booth is on a mission.

Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare, but losing a child to a preventable accident is a unique kind of grief. Such bereaved parents are often haunted by what ifs, and many choose to channel their grief into helping prevent whatever killed their child from happening to other people.

That's what David and Jennifer Booth decided to focus on when they lost their 18-year-old son Nicholas in a car accident in April of 2023. Nick and his friend Will had left lacrosse practice and were driving along a treacherous road near Richmond, Virginia, when they lost control of the car around a curve. The car hit a retaining wall, flipped and burst into flames, killing both teens. The Virginia Department of Transportation estimated that the car was traveling in excess of 80 mph when it struck the wall.

After another local teen was killed in a car crash two days before the new year, Booth reflected on how he talks about his son's death. He took to Facebook Live in January of 2024 to share his thoughts.

After describing the basic details of his son's accident, Booth shared that Nick and Will's bodies had to be identified by their dental remains, which took more than 10 days.

"Since that time, in addition to grieving our children, we parents have worked very hard to share the story of our boys and how their death affected us, in hopes that other young people would make better decisions when getting into cars," he said. "We have focused on love and community and how special those two young men were, and how much they're going to be missed."

Booth explained that he woke up the morning December 30, on what would have been Nick's 19th birthday, to the news that another teen had lost his life in a car accident because of poor decisions. Booth said it felt like he was reading about his own son again—a young man who was "an athlete" with "an unwavering smile and sense of optimism." At first, Booth felt sad, but then he became angry that another young life had been lost after all they'd done to tell Nick and Will's story.

"What it made me realize was that we're telling the story the wrong way," he said. "Instead of talking about how awesome those boys were when they were alive and how much they were loved and how much they meant to the community, in order to reach the young people we're trying to reach, we really need to focus on their death. The fact that it's not cool. It's not a badge of honor. It's not 'neat' that they have 3-on-3 tournaments named after them and plaques hung up on walls and trees planted for them in other neighborhoods. That all sucks. Because they're dead."

"So I will forever change the way I deliver my message," Booth continued. "Instead of showing pictures of my son and his friends having a good time and loving life, I will show pictures of the crash scene. Or instead of talking about what an amazing kid he was, I will talk about how scared he must've been when the car hit that wall. I will talk about the pain associated with the fact that we never even got to see him again in death because he was burned beyond recognition."

"We are doing this the wrong way," he reiterated. "We've got to do better. Young people do not believe that it can happen to them. They do not believe that when it happens, it's forever…I am forever changed by my son's death, but now I am equally changed by the realization that in order to really send the message, you have to use the shock factor and you have to use words that make people uncomfortable."

Watch Booth's message here:

It's heartbreaking that a parent should have to share and relive their son's death in tragic detail in order to prevent the same thing from happening to other young people, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. Teens and young adults often see themselves as invincible and, unfortunately, take life-threatening risks in the name of fun, but Booth is on a mission to get people to rethink taking risks behind the wheel.

"I do this for me, I do it for my family, and I do it for my son," he said.

Here's hoping that this father's courage to tell it like it is, even though it's painful, will help the message sink in so that other families can be spared being put in the same position.

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Joy

Georgia teens are being hailed as heroes after rescuing woman trapped in car

“We need to hurry!”

Photo by Will Creswick on Unsplash

Georgia teens rescue woman trapped in her car.

Five teens from Rome, Georgia, recently earned their spot as heroes. Antwion Carey, Alto Moore, Tyson Brown, Cesar Parker and Treyvon Adams were driving to school when they witnessed a car accident. The accident left a woman trapped in her vehicle, which they noticed was starting to smoke.

Their teacher, Louis Goya, heard the accident as he was standing outside of the school greeting students as they entered school.

Goya told USA Today that he ran to the intersection when he heard the noise and called 911. The teacher recalled, "There was smoke coming up from the hood. There was fluid on the ground," before relaying to the dispatcher, "We need to hurry!" The teen boys that witnessed the crash are football players and their strength came in handy when the decision was made to help the woman trapped in the car. In this instance, the teens were in the right place at the right time.

The photos of the woman's car show it to be pretty badly damaged and both doors were tightly shut due to the impact of the accident. The boys didn't hesitate to help the woman at the scene. Adams, 16, told Fox 5, "We all knew we had to get her out before something worse would happen."

The football players ran over to help when they saw the woman screaming and with blood on her face. They tried the door on the passenger side first and when it wouldn't open, the video shows they ran to the other side of the car and collectively yanked on the door. After a few good tugs, the door swung open and they were able to get the woman to safety. But the athletes weren't done. Once they realized the woman was safe, they went to check on the other car involved in the crash.

Their coach was impressed by their heroism, but not surprised. Coach John Reid told Fox 5, "When I saw the video I was like, oh my gosh, these kids really did run right into danger and have a sensational event where they helped a lady out of a car that could have caught fire."

Screenshot from Fox 5 video.

Fox 5

Rome City School District posted about the event on its Facebook page and the comments are filled with praise for the teens. Goya, who witnessed the boys' heroism firsthand, gave a statement about their bravery on the Facebook post, saying in part, "The Rome High School football players really showed up today. They went above and beyond to help this lady without hesitation.”

It's true. These teen boys are absolutely heroes. Thanks to their quick thinking the woman involved in the accident was able to be brought to safety. She was transported to the hospital where she was treated for cuts and bruises and X-rayed to look for fractures. Currently it is unclear if she was released.

Way to go guys! We're sure you'll continue to do great things in your lifetimes.

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Popular

Two teens got called out for making a TikTok video after a car crash, but they say it helped them 'cope'

Can the teens do literally anything without being blasted? Apparently not...

Katie Cornetti and Marissa Bordas, two Pittsburgh teens, were involved in a car crash. After taking a sharp turn on a winding road, the car flipped twice, then landed on its side. The girls said later on that they weren't on their phones at the time. The cause of the crash was because the tires on Bordas' car were mounted improperly.

The girls were wearing their seatbelts and were fine, aside from a few bruises. However, they were trapped in the car for about 20 minutes, so to pass the time while they waited for help, they decided to make a TikTok video. They made sure they were totally fine before they started recording.

RELATED: 'Bachelor in Paradise' alum makes epic point about negative comments on social media

The video shows the teens joyfully lip syncing to Stupid by Ashnikko and Yung Baby Tate while the camera pans around, revealing massive cracks in the windshield.


youtu.be


They also posted a follow up video making fun of the crash a few days later.


The video of the crash went viral after YouTuber Zane Hijazishared it on Twitter.

The girls were criticized for making a video right after their car flipped. Some saw it as the epitome of what's wrong with social media and/or the youth today and/or America.






Ah, yes! Because everyone who's gotten in a car accident wants to hear, "What's wrong with you?" instead of "Are you okay?"

RELATED: Remember the viral video of someone with a Delta flight to themselves? There's more to the story

The girls don't feel that their video is in the wrong. They say that the TikTok was their way of coping with the accident, not a moment of irresponsibility. "We saw [the window] shatter and we look at each other, and were like, 'Are you OK? Are you OK?' Once we figured out we were all OK, we started laughing," Cornetti told BuzzFeed News. "We're best friends and this is how we coped together."

The TikTok made a bad situation better. "That was the first thing that came to mind...to do that," she said. "It really was scary...But we decided let's do this to get our minds off of it, and honestly it helped a lot."

Laughing about the accident might actually be a better way to cope. "There was not much we could do to make anything better, so that's what we decided to do," Cornetti said. "Literally the week before I got into a small car accident I was freaking out and crying — that was not the best way to cope with anything."

The fact that social media is a distraction isn't always negative. "[Social media] is distracting...in ways, it's bad distracting, but it helped us get out of the real world for a second and helped us calm down. I would never have said that before this," she continued.

The girls also responded to the criticism in another video, clearing up some of the misperceptions.


katiecornetti on TikTokwww.tiktok.com


There's no one "correct" way to cope with negative experiences. Sometimes staying positive and using humor is the best way to deal with a bad situation.

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