The first one to open the door and bail out before the car plunges over a cliff is a "chicken," Ralph explained. That's where they got the idea of running red light as a stunt. "Nick was best at it," Ralph explained. "He was fearless. When he played baseball in high school, he was fearless then too. When he was up to bat, he would crowd the plate and like, dare the pitcher to hit him. He got hit by pitched balls a lot but boy he could smash the ball when it was over the plate to his liking." Ralph remembered that Nick was a left-handed pitcher and he would deliberately throw the first pitch at the batter's head to get him "loose"; umpires have actually thrown Nick out of games, Ralph went on, "for throwing at guys on purpose, and hitting some of them in the head with fastballs."

On that early January morning, a Sunday morning, the three high school pals had been to a Saturday night party, and they got into Nick's little car and headed to do some red-light running. "I was really tired and I knew my mom might wait up for me so the boys dropped me off at my house," Ralph explained. Then the two went to the intersection of elm and Highway 14, the busiest highway running through their town, and, Ralph explained, "Nick was itching to do a chicken run that morning and I count my lucky stars I had them drop me off first."

When Nick and Derek breezed into that intersection, through the red light at 5 in the dark of a pre-dawn morning, they did not know there was a big pickup...

The pickup struck Nick's little car square in the driver's side.
"The impact was so intense, Nick's car was thrown about 70 feet off Highway 14, into a tree," Ralph explained, his eyes looking watery like he was about to be shedding tears. "Both of my friends were killed instantly. Their parents were devastated. The whole school was in mourning for several weeks. I heard that Nick's cell phone was recovered and the rumor was that the video of him running that last red light was retrieved by highway patrol investigators, but I never could confirm that." How could a cell phone still be operating after that collision? I asked.

Ralph didn't answer. "Did you feel a sense of guilt that they were killed but you were let off before the crash?" I asked. "Oh God I still have a horrible amount of guilt, that I was lucky all those other times we did that and that my best friends are dead," Ralph admitted. "I have bonded with Nick's younger brothers and with Derek's mom and dad. Derek's folks like me to come over for snacks because it reminds them of how it used to be. They see their son in me, and that feels nice but I still am plagued with guilt and some depression, I suppose," Ralph finished. We went to the basement and he showed me that last video with Beethoven's music and the boys running a red light. It was very sad to watch Ralph cry. That was the end of the interview.