A high school quarterback died after being flung from his pickup truck while trying to help a stranded driver on a Florida highway.
Nick Miner, 18, of Orlando, stopped to help a stranded driver around 1am when his pickup truck was struck, ejecting him from the car and killing him on Sunday.
A 27-year-old driver, who was not identified, was driving north on Dallas Boulevard in a white Honda when they ‘failed to observe’ Miner’s truck stopped in the road.
Miner was reportedly trying to help a Ford truck back onto the road when the Honda slammed into his vehicle, overturning it.
A 17-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman, who were standing outside of the gray Ford, were hit by Miner’s vehicle and were taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Center with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The Honda driver reportedly suffered minor injuries and charges are pending.
Many took to social media after the tragedy to remember the East River High School quarterback, with friends, family, and classmates remembering him as the class clown, a leader, and their ‘best friend.’
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(809x369:811x371)/Nick-Miner-102522-1c7e033b34f34bd2989eefaed2c02fc3.jpg)
‘He was a great, great quarterback and [he] meant a lot to the team. I’m just going to play the rest of my years for him, all out for Nick,’ his teammate Parker Stone told Fox 35 Orlando. ‘It hurts. He was a brother of the family. I wish he was still here.
‘[He was] funny, always the class clown, but a leader on the field. Never gave up, always gave his all.’
His friend of more than five years, Kevin Chuimi, told DailyMail.com he was the closest with Miner on the team.
‘In all the time I’ve known Nick he’s always been such a loving guy, it was just in his nature,’ he said. ‘The love he had for his family, his friends, and football was truly unmatched by anyone I’ve known.
‘He had a contagious laugh and smile brighter than most. When I think of the moments I share with Nick there was never one not filled with happiness. As he grew Nick’s character only strengthened, and he became such a positive person not just in my life but the lives of so many others.’
He told DailyMail.com that he saw Miner the day before the tragedy and said ‘it’s hard to imagine that one minute your talking and laughing with someone and next thing you know they’re gone.’
Chuimi said he grew emotional at the candlelight vigil and said he didn’t think he had ever ‘cried more in my life.’
‘Losing a brother like that is something no one should ever have to go through,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘I was blessed enough to see him one last time though and for that I am more than thankful.’
Miner’s girlfriend, Kayla Artes, said her ‘heart truly broke’ when she received the phone call about Miner’s death.
She wrote: ‘I don’t wish it on anyone, it was the worst call of my life. I never thought this would happen, no one did, you didn’t deserve this at all. I don’t understand why the good ones are always taken so soon, you had so many things in life you wanted to do.
‘All you wanted was a daughter and a family when you were older…You loved little kids so much, you used to play with my little sisters all the time and would have the biggest smile while doing so.’
Artes also revealed that Miner dreamed of having a ‘ranch with a wrap-around porch to raise your kids on’ and wanted to live in the Florida Keys.
She also remembered how he went out of his way to make sure she always had an ‘amazing day’ and made her the ‘happiest person.’
‘You were the love of my life,’ she wrote on Instagram. ‘I can’t explain the amount of hurt I’m feeling. I just want to see your face again and tell you how much you mean to me. I will forever cherish every memory with you that I have. I will continue to make you proud in everything I do as you watch over me.
I miss you more than words can even explain. I don’t know how I’m gonna get through this, but I’m going to try and be strong like you would want. I will forever be grateful for the time we had together and everything you have done for me. I love you forever and always, handsome boy.’
One of his friends, Kaitlyn Ambrose, remembered him as her ‘kindergarten love’ and said he was her ‘first crush.’
‘In kindergarten, I remember seeing you at school and thinking you were just the most perfect kid I had ever seen,’ she wrote in an Instagram tribute. ‘We had the biggest crush on each other and we still laughed about it to this day.’
Ambrose also revealed that she and several others – including Miner’s mother Deanna – sat at his makeshift memorial at the crash sight ‘scream-crying.’
‘I hugged your mama and just scream-cried with her because I cannot accept that this is real. We are all heartbroken. I just want to hug you one more time. I just want to be young again and spend every single day with you. It’s so unfair. You had such a big future. You had such a big heart,’ she wrote.
Another, Celeste Grimmer, described the young athlete as the ‘most pure, sweetest, and a beautiful soul I’ve ever come across.’
‘You were seriously one of the best people I’ve met in my whole life. The first time you walked in when I met you, you immediately lit up the room. Your smile was infectious. That’s one thing I will never forget. You had that smile that could ease someone’s pain, just by looking at them,’ Grimmer wrote on Instagram.
‘I am going to forever miss and remember boat days with you, sitting listening to country music on the water, watching you almost bust your a** on the jet-ski all the time, and play fighting with me like we were siblings.’
Miner’s school also paid tribute to him in a voicemail sent to students.
Principal Becky Watson offered her ‘thoughts and payers’ to the family and announced there would be ‘grief counselors available on came first thing [on Monday] for any student or staff member who needs to speak with someone about this loss.’
A memorial was held at the school for family and students at East River High School on Monday. A public memorial is set to follow in the coming days.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for his funeral. It has nearly reached its $50,000, reaching $48,000 as of Tuesday morning.
His father Andrew wrote: ‘It breaks my heart to say that we lost our beloved Nick. Nick was loved by many and always went out of his way to be there for others and help his friends in need.’
Source: DailyMail.com
