Tweeted YOLO, Dead The Next Hour

Youthful exhuberance has never done any good to any youth. No one should lose their heads just in the name of having fun. Tragedies happen everywhere though, but it hurts when it’s a preventable tragedy.

The San Bernardino Sun reports that last week, five men in their early 20s were killed in Ontario, California when their 2005 Nissan Sentra ran a red light, lost control and hit a fence, before coming to rest in the backyard of a house. As news of the tragedy spread around the community, one of the vicitim’s Twitter accounts caught the attention of investigators. Ervin McKinness, 21, died in the car crash, which police say occurred around 1:40AM on September 3rd (Labour Day), but approximately twenty minutes before the deadly accident, the 21-year-old sent out a tweet that could have saved his life if someone had intervened.

“Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #F**kIt YOLO,” was posted at 1:19 AM Monday on the McKinness’ Twitter account (@ink2flashyy.) “YOLO” is the acronym for “You Only Live Once.” The four letters are often used on the social networking site. Drake popularized the acronym on the track, The Motto. He raps thus, “You only live once, that’s the motto, ni–a Yolo / We bout it every day, every day, every day / Like we sitting on the bench, ni–a we don’t really play .”

Marquell Bogan, 23, Dylan George, 20, Jonathan Watson, 21 and JaJuan Bennett, 23, were also killed in the car accident. McKinness, who sent out the now-cryptic tweet, was not at the wheel, as his tweets suggest. Watson was driving according to police. One final, follow-up tweet from McKinness a minute later read: “Driving tweeting sipping the cup f–k yolo I’m turning it up.” Maybe he was actually at the wheels, but the last tweet was eventually removed from his account.

All the victims were pronounced dead on the scene except one. Bogan was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2AM. The investigation is still underway, but McKinness’ tweets reveal that alcohol was in charge.

What could have been a day of joy ended in tears as family and friends of the deceased revealed that the group were celebrating the good news that McKinness, an aspiring rapper that went by the name Jew’elz and Inkky had signed a record deal. Be careful how you celebrate success. Think well before you use those words, YOLO.