PHOTOS: A Tree Now Marks the Spot that Claimed a Life

Two years to the day after a fiery crash claimed the life of a 21-year-old Dana Point man, a tree was planted at scene of the accident.

Friday evening, friends and family members of Bryan Ferguson gathered together on near a utility shed on the campus of Marco Forster Middle School.

It was there on Aug. 16, 2011 that the car in which Ferguson was a passenger crashed through the fence up on Del Obispo Street, careened down the embankment into the utility shed and burst into flames.

Driver Alexander Goodrich was able to crawl out of the wreckage as horrified onlookers helplessly heard Ferguson beg for help. Charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and headed for trial, Goodrich died last month in what his lawyer said was an apparent suicide.

The freshly planted jacaranda tree – Ferguson’s favorite according to his mom – “is a way to turn the tragedy of how he passed into something beautiful,” Jo Anne Ferguson told the group of 40 or so.

Pastor Mark Fitter of Hope Harbor Church in San Juan Capistrano prayed “that when people see this tree, they remember [Bryon’s] life, a life that points to” God.

Friends and family first sprinkled rosemary leaves at the base of the tree, then finished it off with shoveled dirt.