WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WNCN) – Todd Kreisman’s car looked like it drove straight off the big screen.  

Painted to look like Lightning McQueen from the Disney-Pixar movie franchise “Cars,” the vehicle turned heads all over the Triangle, but Kreisman’s only goal was to make his son’s dream come true.

“He started asking me a few years ago, ‘Daddy, can you turn your car into Lightning McQueen?'” Kreisman recalled. “I’m sure a lot of kids have fantastical ideas like that, but because I’m an artist, and I live to make this kid happy, I started to think, ‘Why not?'”

Kreisman created a near carbon copy of the movie character.

“I loved it so much,” said 6-year-old Oliver Kreisman. “I liked that daddy put the eyes in it.” 

“Every time I would scoop him up from carpool and drive, he would just smile so big when other people would appreciate the car,” Kreisman added.

Then, late last month, on the way to Oliver’s guitar lesson, Kreisman says someone plowed into the back of his car.

“We were in stop-and-go traffic on Main Street in Wake Forest,” he recalled. “I looked up and saw in my rearview, at the very last second, a guy going maybe 35-40 miles per hour, slammed right into me, causing a four-car collision.”

His first though was Oliver.

“I immediately looked into the backseat to make sure he was okay,” Kreisman remembered. “He was scared; he had one little tear, but he was super brave and unharmed, which is the most important thing.”

Unlike the movies, though, there was no happy ending for Lightning.

“[The] car was totaled. I held out a tiny bit of hope that maybe there was a way to salvage it, but no,” Kreisman explained. “I knew when I first painted it that I was taking that risk – anytime you put a piece of artwork out on the road, you know that it’s a possibility – but I thought at least I’d get some years out of it.”

According to an arrest report, the driver arrested in the crash was driving with a revoked license and no insurance.

“I understand accidents happen, but it should never have happened,” Kreisman said.

The hardest part was seeing Oliver so sad about losing the car, but Lightning’s memory has gotten a lot of love from the community.

“So many people have come out and talked about how much it meant to them and how sorry they are to see it gone,” Kreisman said. 

He’s glad the car made people smile.

“Thank you to everybody that supported and gave me a little honk on the road,” he said.