NEW RICHMOND, Wis. (KMSP) -
Boys will be boys, having fun and vying for a girl's attention -- but behind the wheel, that simple act ended in a deadly crash.
On Wednesday, investigators announced that distracted driving caused the crash that killed three Wisconsin teenagers last week, and the lone survivor shared the story with FOX 9 News.
"I feel lucky, but I don't really want to say that because my friends weren't so lucky," Tom Wanless admitted. "I kind of feel like, why was it me instead of them?"
The pain Wanless feels from his broken collarbone doesn't even come close to the pain of losing his closest comrades, Zach Zajec, Josh Goodrich and Jordan Johnson.
"This is really the worst-case scenario," he said.
Wanless told FOX 9 News that the four of them were driving home to New Richmond when they saw a girl in another car and wanted to get her attention by writing their numbers down. Zajec was driving at the time.
"He looked for a piece of paper in the center console and Jordan did take off his seat belt for just a second and looked in the back for a piece of paper when it happened," Wanless recalled.
The SUV slammed into a stopped semi-trailer at 65 miles per hour.
"His attention was off the road for 3 seconds when this happened," Wanless said.
Now, Wanless is hoping all motorists take his hard-learned lesson to heart.
"This could happen to the best driver in the world and the worst driver in the world," he said. "Anybody that does drive, they need to make sure that concentration is on the road and not on anything else."
While standing near the memorial at New Richmond High School, Goodrich's sister says she also hopes others will learn from her brother's death.
"The whole thing is just stupid," Nicole Goodrich said. "It happens every day. It just happened to us this time."
Whether it's a passenger trying to get the attention of a girl or a call on a cell phone, Nicole Goodrich says she doesn't want distracted driving to devastate another family.
A benefit fund has been established for the victims of the crash. Donations can be made through PayPal at ourfourboys.org.
