Enough!
Enough!
Courtesy of Sharon DeVellis of the Yummy Mummy Club
July 05, 2010
I’m so beyond pissed off right now I can’t stand it. While putting on make up this morning while watching Breakfast Television, I listened as Kevin Frankish reported about how a father died in front of his two kids, ages 7 and 11, last night.
Was it a long weekend freak accident? Did he have a heart attack?
No. He was killed from a head-on collision by a driver who was going the wrong way on a major highway. The car is virtually unrecognizable with the front passenger seat pretty much obliterated.
The dad, the one sitting in the now gone front passenger seat, was killed instantly. The mom who was driving was airlifted to a hospital and is in critical condition.
The two kids are unhurt.
But not really. They aren’t fucking unhurt. They lost their father. Their mother is in a hospital and will hopefully recuperate but will have who knows how many months or years to get back to where she was.
The family? That’ll never get back to where it was, will it? Because I can tell you from experience, this crash will be the turning point in their lives. From this point forward, life for them will be known as before the crash and after the crash.
“Alcohol is being investigated as a factor in the collision.”
And this is where I say What The Fuck? And yes, I’m using f-bomb. If you’re offended, then walk away from the computer. But I earned the right to use What the fuck when two years ago a drunk driver smashed head-on into our family on a Sunday afternoon as we driving to my in-laws house to celebrate Mother’s Day. I earned it when I had to calm my screaming, bleeding child sitting by the side of the road waiting for police and paramedics to arrive. I earned it when I had to hold both my kids beside me on the ambulance ride to the hospital and when I had to see the drunk driver being admitted AHEAD OF US and he was so drunk he couldn’t even tell the nurse his name.
I earned it when I chose to stay sitting with my son in my lap and didn’t get up to beat the shit out of him at that very moment.
I earned it when I had to give my child drunk driving magic every single night before bed in order for him to be able to sleep and when I went to court to read our impact statement in front of a full courtroom, only to have the man who changed our family forever not look me in the eye once, not even when I held up pictures of my sons so he could see who he hurt.
I earned it when I listened as the judge revoked his license for 15 months and gave him a fine to pay and he walked away with his wife to go home to his young child. The one who didn’t need therapy from being in a head-on collision.
So I say What The Fuck.
Because I earned it.
And now this family has earned it and they don’t deserve it.
How many people have to die or be injured in drunk driving collisions before we smarten the hell up and get stricter laws?
Editor’s Notes:
Sharon’s rant touches close to home for me as a dear friend of mine sits in hospital beside her sisters bed as she lays there clinically brain dead. The plug is being pulled tomorrow. At the same time her mum lays in another hospital bed clinging to life. It’s still unsure what the outcome will be for her. It was a drunk driver who caused this tragic crash a few weeks ago.
July 6th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
There’s no doubt she’s earned the right. But I wish it was as simple as tougher laws. For sure penalties that included automatic seizure (no option) of the vehicle when found guilty would be a good start, but this is a social problem as much as a criminal issue. As anyone knows your ability to consider consequences when impaired are severely diminished, if not nonexistent. So sadly, for problem drinkers, no laws are going to change their behaviour and even more people are going to “earn the right”.
July 6th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
You are totally right David. Of course the laws aren’t harsh enough for problem drinkers. For Drunk Driving it should be two strikes and you’re out. You loose your car and your license. Period…end of story. Obviously, they aren’t (or can’t) think straight so society and the law must step in and keep them off the road.
Generally, I don’t believe harsher laws make for safer roads. Safer drivers do. However, in the case of alcoholism, no penalty will do justice to the families who’s lives have been ruined. They need to be removed from the road. End of story.
July 6th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I think like anything, implementing tougher laws and seeing a turnaround will take time. And it can’t only be tougher laws, it needs to be in conjunction with educating drivers – both young and old. The thing is…people tend to be fundamentally selfish. So when they’re choosing to drink and drive, they aren’t thinking of the person they may hurt or kill, they’re thinking of themselves. And with no consequences in place of any significance, there’s no deterrent. If you can get away with slamming into another vehicle and hurting the occupants and the consequence is a temporary suspension of your license and a small fine, why would they even stop to consider what they’re doing. BUT…if there was an automatic jail sentence or a a consequence that would actually affect the person making the difference, I think it would have an impact. I’m not naive enough to think it would stop all drunk driving incidences because the fact of the matter is, you’re absolutely correct about some people being so intoxicated they aren’t able to make any sort of rational decisions. The driver who hit us was an alcoholic and had been binge drinking.
July 6th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
If I’ve said it once…I’ve said it 100 times: Safer roads start with safer road users.
Regardless of if you are a driver, rider or pedestrian. However, if you are unable to be responsible and have proven that time and time again (especially because the person is too damn drunk to think clearly), society and law enforcement need to step in to remove that person as a proven threat to our safety from being a continuing threat.
July 9th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
“For Drunk Driving it should be two strikes and you’re out. You loose your car and your license. Period…end of story. Obviously, they aren’t (or can’t) think straight so society and the law must step in and keep them off the road. ”
I am sorry but i disagree with 2 strikes, i think noone but noone should operate a vehicle under any influence, you get caught driving while impaired, you are out! no excuses, no courts. you are done. Having a license is a privilege not a right, and when this privilege is abused, you loose your chance of having it.