María Arancibia from Chile Two months ago, about six in the evening, while I was cooking, I heard a loud noise. My daughter saw a car flying by the dining room window, so she called me. It was a crash. Immediately, another car stopped, and a man got out of the car and called 911. Then there was a ring at the door. A woman asked me for a blanket because another woman had been thrown out of her car and was lying on the street. While I was looking for a blanket, I tried to ask her if they needed something else, but our communication was not good because I didn't speak English very well, and she was very nervous. After that, I went to the accident site. It was impressive and so sad. The woman's husband remained in the car because he had put on his seat belt, but she hadn't. He was groaning and asking for her, and she was out on the street bleeding. She looked so bad. The other car was driven by a young man. He was okay but worried and frightened. Finally, ten minutes later the police arrived, but they were too late because the woman had already died. Her funeral was a few days later. Many limousines came in front of my house. Her family and many other cars stopped to look at where she had died. While other cars were waiting for them, they put flowers where she had died. Now every week the family still comes back here, and they put flowers or stay there for a while. It is so sad. I learned that is very important to use seat belts in the car because in my country not everybody uses them. I think that if this woman would have been wearing a seat belt, maybe she would be alive now.
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This story was selected from Julia Karet's ESL
writing project at Chaffey Community College: