CALGARY -- If justice could be measured in suffering and pain, it's likely Benjamin Harms is already paying a huge price for falling asleep behind the wheel.
Nodding off, which Harms admitted to Washington State troopers as they pulled him from the wreckage, likely caused the crash that sent his Honda CR-V careening off a U.S. highway at high speed, exploding into flames as it hit the trees.
Harms, 18, suffered extensive burns to his legs, while another passenger, Lena Elliott, 18, was left with critical burns and injuries -- both are fighting for their lives in separate Washington hospitals.
They were the lucky ones, if you can call burns and brutal injuries lucky.
Kylie Doxtater and Mikelle Hendrickson, 18-year-old friends and recent grads from Bowness high school, died at the scene of the Sunday evening crash -- Doxtater was Harms' girlfriend; Hendrickson was a dear friend to both Doxtater and Elliott.
It was a catastrophic end to a carefree, post-graduation trip down south: The four had driven from Calgary to Arizona and then California, before heading north into Washington.
Elliott, with prayers and good fortune, will recover, her life forever altered but intact.
Harms may recover from his burns, but life as he expected it may be over.
Before sending him to hospital, troopers in Washington arrested the Springbank high school student on charges of vehicular assault for suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.
"The statement that he made at the crash scene was that he fell asleep, but we have a drug-recognition expert who did determine he was under the influence of drugs," said Washington State Trooper Brandy Kessler.
The charges, said Kessler, will likely be updated to vehicular homicide, if blood tests confirm police suspicions.
Vehicular homicide is a class A felony that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in Washington state.
"They haven't even discussed that yet -- their only concern right now is him getting better," said the family friend answering the phone at the Harms' home, with the entire family in Seattle at Benjamin's side.
That a driver barely an adult might spend decades behind bars in a U.S. prison only compounds the horror of this wreck, which cut short two lives and drastically altered two others.
Those who knew the young adults best say the accusations of drug use and driving make it sound like a wild ride destined for disaster.
But the reality, they say, was a group of friends who were ordinary 18-year-olds, not always perfect, but in no way the tearaways the highway tragedy might suggest.
"They were really, really great all-around people, not like that at all," said Peter Penkala, a close friend who attended Bowness high school's grad with the three female victims.
"I'm surprised there are charges, I can't imagine that was the case at all -- I'd think it was more like an asleep at the wheel kind of thing; out of all of them, Ben was the most straight-laced."
Another friend, Kirk Gonzalez, described their group as a slightly off-cast but a tight-knit bunch of individuals who spent every spare moment together, even holding their own private after-grad party at a campsite.
"They were like family to me -- we loved each other. The best part of my day was the part I spent with them," said Gonzalez.
He too, thinks the drug allegations cast his friends in a unfair light.
"We weren't any different than any other kids -- it wasn't like that at all," he said.
Like other recent graduates, they planned for the future -- Gonzalez was especially close to Hendrickson, and he said she dreamed of a career in medicine.
"She wanted to be a nurse that was her ultimate goal, because she loved helping people out," he said.
"She really cared about people."
Gonzalez pauses as he considers that the "family" of friends is now broken apart.
"I don't think I'm ever going to be the same person after this," he said.
"That's all I can do right now -- I'm just thinking about all the good times we had."
MICHAEL.PLATT@SUNMEDIA.CA
