Santa Cruz Sentinel
FELTON — Sober and admittedly nervous in his first speech on Wednesday, Donovan Hicks Barclay III told teen drivers about the horror of two DUI crashes, one of which killed his two cousins and the other that nearly killed him.
A judge ordered Barclay, 23, to talk to students at San Lorenzo Valley High School and about five other schools in the next few months to warn them of the dangers of driving while impaired.
Barclay said he was high on marijuana during his first crash in 2007, when he slammed a Saab into a tree and killed Tyler and Shane Barclay, ages 17 and 22. Donovan, then 17, woke up in a hospital a week later with no memory of the crash.
His mother broke the news that his cousins were dead.
“It hit me really hard. I was crying for a week straight,” Donovan said during the assembly.
He paused as he looked at the crowd of stunned 11th and 12th graders.
“They were my best friends. I loved them. I feel guilty every day,” he said.
After the speech, Donovan said he was sweaty and nervous …MORE