Wrong-way driver was going more than 100 mph, witnesses say

[murielm99]

3. That happened to my brother when he was eighteen.

A drunk was going the wrong way down a four-lane highway, withouts lights, at 8:30 p.m. He hit my brother head-on. My brother's best friend died. My brother, the driver, spent about three weeks in a coma and two years in rehab. He is sixty-two now, and has suffered lasting effects from the accident.

What happened to the driver? Nothing, basically. He had a bit of damage to the front of his pickup, and he broke a couple of bones in one of his feet. BTW, he was driving with no insurance and a suspended driver's license, because he had other drunk driving tickets. Later, my brother met a middle-aged woman who had had a similar accident with the same drunk. She was in a wheelchair.

Our state did not have implied consent laws at that time. The drunk tried to sue the hospital that took a test measuring his blood alcohol "without his knowledge or consent." The orthopedic doctor who helped my brother had banded together with other doctors, who had a war chest to fight such suits. Eventually, the law was changed. My brother was one of the people who wrote a letter that was read into the state record when the law was changed. It helped him feel that his friend's death had not been entirely for nothing.

I have never been able to take even one drink and get behind the wheel. Never, not under any circumstances.