Do you personally know anyone who was killed by a drunk driver?
No. Never known anyone killed in a car crash.
Yes, back in 1972 ish, I would have been about 21 and both he and the drunk driver about 19, we all went to school together.
Happened 1/4 mile from my parent’s farm around 1:00 am.
Do you count people killed in single car drunk driving accidents? If so, yes, a neighbor back in high school.
Yes - a girl in our circle of friends in high school was killed in a drunk driving accident. She was the passenger in the drunk driver’s car, he went over the center line into oncoming traffic and the car coming the other way hit head-on on the passenger side.
Is it a yes if the person killed was the drunk driver? If so then yes. My best friend’s brother ran in to a post and died after a long night of heavy drinking.
Yes. Both the drunk driver who caused his own death type and the drunk driver who killed someone I knew type.
My Mid-daughters MIL and SIL were killed when a drunk driver crossed over the center line. The driver was hurt really bad but he survived.
I really liked her MIL and the sister was very young age 12. It was a very sad experience.
A highschool friend was drunk and stopped on a railroad track, passed out and a train hit his car. Some say it was suicide. Not sure.
No. But Mrs. Cretin and I were personally very nearly killed by one, and during the event I thought “Now I’m going to be killed.”
1981, Thanksgiving Eve, 8 lane freeway, crowded with holiday traffic (us included). We were doing 65 in the fast lane. Drunk driver speeding in the slow lane lost control, T-boned us at 65 mph. Flipped us over, chaos ensued, our truck totalled. We walked away from the wreckage with horrifying looking injuries that could (should) have been fatal but were actually not severe. ER medics were openly amazed - “I can’t belive this! He doesn’t even need stitches.” One of the CHP at the accident scene told us we shouldn’t be alive. Several hours later the reality of that statement finally hit us, and to this day we consider 11-25-81 to be our “Second Birthday.” Seatbelts save lives. And the drunk driving penalties in this country are outrageously mild.
I know someone killed by a drunk driver, and I know someone who got a DUI and caused a multicar incident that resulted in 2 deaths.
I do not drink and drive, I prefer not to have more than 1 drink of anything when going out no mater how long it is between drinking and driving.
Yes, around 1980. Drunk crossed the center line and wiped out two close friends I had worked with to turn a warehouse space into a theater, along with two soldiers in another car.
The assailant (I can’t think of another fitting word) came through without a scratch. He already had a DUI conviction and had been remanded to his father’s custody on the condition that he didn’t drive, but that night he “borrowed” the keys to his father’s car and went for a joyride. Father asked at the trial that the driver be returned to his custody; when the judge asked whether he could ensure there would be no recurrence, the father replied, “well, he won’t be driving that car again.” IIRC, the judge was not impressed.
My favorite babysitter when I was a kid was killed by a drunk driver. Beyond that all my contact with the perpetrators and victims of drunk driving accidents has been through my profession.
pendgwen, ER doc
I had a girlfriend many years ago whose brother was killed by a drunk driver.
My senior year of high school, my mentor was killed driving back from college in Wisconsin for Christmas when a drunk driver crossed the center line and hit his car head on.
2001 was not a merry Christmas for many of us.
Yes, I knew both the driver and the victim, who was a pedestrian wandering in the middle of the road. This was back in college in the seventies, and they were both drunk out of their minds. I was probably drunk out of my mind at the same time, but I was smart enough to do it in a campus bar and then walk home on the sidewalk.
I’ve been involved with many fatal DWI accidents over the years. On the personal side a good friend from high school was on a motorcycle and a drunk driver turned left in front of him. Another friend was the drunk driver and she was killed.
I’ve known people killed in car accidents but none where drinking was an issue.
Forty-four years ago, my then-boyfriend’s sister, who was also my best friend’s SIL and had been our classmate throughout high school, was overserved booze at a tavern while underage (17) and by herself. She was also on mild muscle relaxers for a horseback riding injury a couple days before. She fell asleep at the wheel coming home and ran off the road into the river and drowned. Her own fault, of course, but at 17 she should not have been served. Thankfully she didn’t take anyone else with her. Her family never got over it. She had been the only girl in a passel of sons and was the light of her family’s eyes. Still breaks my heart to think about.
All the others I know who’ve died in car wrecks were either not due to booze (just extreme recklessness), or were distant acquaintances.
Yes, the woman in this article was very good friends with a co-worker of mine, so she’d stop in to say hi from time to time and she’d work at our place during the holidays to pick up a few dollars. I certainly wasn’t friends with her, but I knew her well enough that we might chit chat for a few minutes if we bumped into each other outside of work.
This happened recently enough that the driver is still in jail, and will be for the next 3 or 4 years.
D. Boone, singer and guitarist for the Minutemen