While I can’t say I know how I would feel if someone else were responsible for causing my accident, I can say that I don’t hold onto any feelings of loss, bitterness or remorse from it. My disability is now my life, my existence, a central part of who I am. I don’t curse it. If someone else was responsible for bringing this part of me into the world, without intent or malice, I would hold no long-term anger towards them. Yes, they should face appropriate legal punishment but such punishment would absolutely fall short of life imprisonment. That would be throwing the life away of the person who made a mistake in judgment that one time. My life isn’t over, why should their’s be?
Now to flip this around on me, if I was the one responsible for paralyzing someone in an accident, I would probably feel like spending the rest of my life in prison; if not dying. While I could empathize with the temptation to lock up ‘the bastard who did this’ (me) for all eternity, in all reality I would have to admit that that wasn’t the fair punishment.