December 9th of last year was a cold Sunday night. Not even the frigid bite on Tori J’s face, an 18-year-old Hartland resident, could prepare her for the shock she was about to endure.
“Get in the car! Get in the car now grandma!” Tori said as she yanked her grandmother, Marlene, towards her grandmother’s 2007 Chevy Malibu.
Why was she rushing?
“We were following the ambulance. My grandpa had just collapsed. We thought it was a heart attack. We needed to get to the hospital. Fast.”
As soon as they reached the highway, they floored the car. Destination: the Memorial Hospital. Exiting Highway 83, they turned onto Sunset Drive, still right behind the ambulance and only minutes from the hospital.
“Slam. That’s all I heard,” Tori said. “And then, glass rained down on our necks.”
“The truck came out of nowhere. We were stopped at the light one minute. Seconds later, we’re being pushed through the intersection by a vehicle that didn’t stop. Then it was over.”
The smell of alcohol permeated the air as the 27-year-old drunk driver approached Tori. She described him as a dirty, nasty pig.
The shock of the night was yet to come. The police responded and one officer came towards the destroyed Malibu; Tori glanced up. The officer half-smiled and said, “You saved a woman’s life tonight.”

“How?”

“The man who hit you had a loaded gun on his front seat. He was going to confront his ex-girlfriend at a bar. You stopped him.”

Fate spared not only the young woman’s life, it spared Tori’s grandpa too.