From the Tragedy of a Fatal DUI Crash, a Father Seeks Redemption
Imagine a scenario in which your high school-aged son has been involved in a horrendous fatal DUI accident in Florida. Think about the pain you would feel.
Now, imagine that your son is not the victim, but the person responsible for the accident.
That’s what one man from Ridge Manor had to live through when he received a call from his wife in 2007 telling him that his son had been in an accident. While driving to the accident scene, like any parent, he worried that his son had been injured. He knew something was terribly wrong when he pulled up and saw nearly two dozen emergency vehicles at the crash scene — and his son sitting in the backseat of a patrol car.
He learned his son had been drinking earlier that afternoon and had been driving his pickup truck 60 mph in a 30 mph zone before he struck a minivan. His blood alcohol level was .207 — more than twice the legal limit.
The next day, he received the news that a 13-year-old middle school girl who was a passenger in the minivan had died from her injuries.
“The death of that little girl just devastated me, I can tell you it still does,” said the father.
In the wake of the accident, the father formed the group “Driving Sober To Save A Life”. While the message is much like that of “Mothers Against Drunk Driving,” his organization’s perspective comes from parents whose children have been the cause of senseless drunk driving deaths.
The father, who travels across the country to give talks about the dangers of drunk driving, doesn’t accept donations for his group. He says that coming up with the idea of the organization was the only way he could sleep in the months after the accident. He stresses that he holds his son “100% responsible” for the accident and is trying to prevent any other young person from following in his son’s footsteps.
His son is currently serving a 13-year sentence for DUI manslaughter.
The Florida drunk driving accident attorneys at Farah & Farah laud Driving Sober To Save A Life’s mission to keep young people from driving drunk. To get more information on the group, please go to drivingsober.net.
