My son, Christopher, died Thursday in an alcohol related traffic accident. He was 18.

I found out Wednesday afternoon from a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy and a department chaplain who met me as I stepped out of my car, that Chris had been a passenger in a truck that had gone off the road in Boggs Forest and struck a tree. He was killed instantly.

As they sat me down in the kitchen of my home I suddenly realized I was alone and I was devastated. My son was never coming home.

I was dispatched by the Record-Bee to Middletown High School Wednesday morning to chronicle the events of the Every 15 Minutes program as students, Every 15 Minutes Committee Members and Lake County public safety personnel reenacted a vehicle accident in front of the high school, which involved a drunk driver and would claim the lives of two students.

As the morning unfolded I watched as the Grim Reaper, announced by the tolling of the bells that rang every 15 minutes, suddenly appeared in classrooms throughout the campus and selected his victims, one of whom was my son, and escorted them past the graveyard lined with tombstones that bore each of their names and into oblivion.

I photographed the daughter of one of our best friends as she was led into a room and made up to appear as if she had sustained critical injuries before being placed into a car to play out her role. Her transformation was so real it was frightening.

Then as all gathered at the front of the school it all began as the hundreds of spectators were abruptly silenced by the explosion and burst of light that signaled that the accident had taken place.

Radios blared, sirens wailed but they could not drown out the screams that emanated from the wrecked cars.

Lying on the hood of the pick up truck which had crashed head on into a car containing three students was the body of a teenaged boy thrown violently through the windshield and obviously dead. In the street at the foot of the other car’s door, a teenaged girl lay dying.

Time stood still; seconds seemed like an eternity as the Grim Reaper waited across the street with the souls of the other victims who would perish this day.

I knew this wasn’t real. My son was alive and well, and that I would see him again yet I couldn’t help but be moved by the scene and the emotions of the moment. I couldn’t help but recall another accident scene many years ago that claimed the life of a former Middletown High School student. His name was Brian Moore and he was 20 years old.

I remember entering the Tallman Gym and being swept up in the moment, something a reporter can never afford but I couldn’t help as I took in the sight of hundreds of members of the community who had gathered to remember him. The Record-Bee sports stories – some I had authored – artwork, letters and images of Brian that chronicled his life on and off the athletic field placed upon easels and steering those that entered the gym through it unfolded before me bringing him back to life if only for a moment. I wasn’t the only person to shed tears that day.

Sadly 2012 starts off with another moment in time that I will never forget.

In the early morning hours of last Sunday my son entered our bedroom with tears streaming down his face, seemingly lost, not knowing what to do.

He had received a text on his phone telling him that the collision last Saturday night on Highway 29 may have involved one of his best friends.

After a brief drive down the hill his worst fears were confirmed, his friend Jena Marks, her boyfriend Patrick Campbell and Jena’s mother Kari, had died. Three more lives claimed in just a moment of time.

Other than having met Jena a time or two at one event or another, I really didn’t know them at all yet, just like the Every 15 Minutes program or Moore’s memorial, I felt a tremendous sense of loss and found myself crying.

I can only imagine what my son or Daniel and Jeff, Marks’ sons, are going through. In one moment they stand before you laughing, full of joy and life while, in the blink of an eye – in a moment in time – they are gone and a happy home gone silent.

Sunday will find the Tallman Gym filled once again with members of the south county community who will gather to celebrate the lives of Jena, Kari and Patrick, sharing their own special memories – their moments in time – with all of us. When we all depart it will be with hearts filled with their love, their joy of life and strength of purpose, but mostly we will leave with the faith and belief that their spirits are forever with us until we meet in that moment of time once again.

Funds have been established for both the Marks and Campbell families at Wells Fargo Bank.

For the Marks family direct your donations to Daniel Walters at account 8534215515, the Kari and Jena Marks Memorial Fund at Wells Fargo Bank.

A fund for Patrick Earl Campbell has been set up at the Wells Fargo Bank in Sebastopol, phone 707-824-2620. Donations may be made through any branch of Wells Fargo Bank.

Now is the time for healing and to that end my thoughts go to the other three victims of this tragic event, Michael Wright, Kari Marks’ longtime boyfriend, as well as Steven and Lezley Beyer. The Lake County community needs to support them as well.

Thanks for your time. The pear box is now returned to the shed.

Dave Fromer lives in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.