Often people I work with will mention how they, or someone they knew, drove when they had been drinking. Although they make light of it, because they lived and no one got hurt, they seem to develop a braver and more confident ability in their driving while intoxicated and seem to think the law is not for them. I personally, hate to hear about this and this is why.
A good friend of our family, a non Witness that we grew up with. Graduated from High School in 1987 as valedictorian. She was accepted to UC Davis in California with a full ride scholarship. She was a beautiful woman, with an amazing future. In her second semester of College, she came home for Mother's Day. She always made it a point to be home on Mother's Day, since her father died in a plane crash a couple years earlier. My sister and I met up with her for a movie on Saturday night, and we all went to dinner. In the parking lot we all set and talked about all the fun college stuff she was experiencing and all the stupid things we did as kids. It was getting late, so she headed home with her sister (younger sister, 13 years old). We went home, went to bed and the next day was like any other day. My mother came in with the newspaper and their was a front page picture of a car accident. It appeared a driver got on the off ramp and hit some poor unlucky person head on at 60 mph. The damage looked terrible, but since it was someone we did not know, it was just a picture.
The day went on and about 11am we get this call from a friend of ours from High School asking if the girl who died last night was our friend. My sister was confused, what accident? We did not know what they were talking about. My sister tried to call our friend, but the line was busy. She began to panic, and called another friend who knew nothing of it. We then called the hospital, and asked if their was a person there with our friends name. They said there was, and that she was okay and going into surgery. We thought, why did people think she was dead then. So we felt a little better, then a friend came to our door that knew us all, crying. We asked what was wrong. She said that our friend was dead, and we were puzzled. We explained that we knew she was hurt, but she was in surgery. They explained, it was her sister in surgery, that our friend died a few seconds after the accident and her last words were to ask her sister if she was okay. It was a hard moment in life. A lot of us friends got together that night, for support and for memories to share. We found out the man who hit her was extremely drunk, and because of this he hardly even got hurt. The man kept saying, while he lay there on the side of the road, "You can't sue me for anything, I'm poor" and no concern for our friend who lay crushed and dead in her car, only feet away.
The funeral was hard, and almost a high school reunion of sorts, as most of our friends all went to school together. I thought it did not affect my life much, as the years went by and I went on my own way. She was always closer to my sister, then to me, and I moved on easier. What was interesting though, is that when speaking to my sister recently, she mentioned that the major life event that caused her to be a Witness, was this one.
So, with this in mind, do you know anyone killed by a drunk driver? If so, how do you feel about those who do it and seem to think they are not going to be the one, that may one day ruin the life of others, not to mention take the life of someone. From their one little ride home?
