DWI offenders hear from victims families

About 40 people who have been convicted of driving while intoxicated gathered in the Slidell City Court Thursday night to get a first hand view of people whose lives have been shattered because of drunk drivers.

The Victim Impact Panel, sponsored by the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has two goals, according to MADD employee and Impact Panel coordinator Angela May.

“We want to make an impact on the DWI offender and hope they walk away with something that will make them make a better choice,” May said. “Also, the panels are a way for the victims to heal. Telling their stories helps in the healing process.”

Slidell City Court Judge Jim Lamz invited MADD to present its Victim Impact Panel because of an increasing trend in DWI cases coming before him. He had heard of the program’s success and decided to bring it to Slidell.

In the past, when a person was convicted of DWI Lamz mandated the person attend an off-site session where they watch videos and listen to law enforcement officers as part of their probation.

Now, Lamz said, all offenders must attend the Victim Impact Panel.

“Having real people who were victimized by the crime speak with offenders will be more effective in lowering the number who may commit the crime again,” Lamz said.

The crowd of offenders in the courtroom seemed to get the message as they listened to three families tell their stories. DWI offenders looked uncomfortable and squirmed in their seats as Pat Hambrick, Terry Evans and Vanessa Braggs told how they had lost loved ones to drunk drivers.

The speakers were not confrontational, nor judgmental, with their audience.

They simply told their stories, sometimes breaking into tears as they remembered their lost family members.

They all showed pictures of their loved ones. Evans even had a picture of her husband’s car after it was wrecked by a drunk driver.

Hambrick talked about her son, Kirby, who was killed by a drunk driver in June 1999. Kirby was a car mechanic and died a day before Father’s Day when a drunk driver smashed into his car along a coastal highway in San Diego.

The drunk driver had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit and had several previous DWI convictions. He is now doing a prison term of 15 years to life for vehicular homicide.

That does not comfort Hambrick, who thinks about her son every day. She is a participant in the panel and offers rides to drunk people for one reason.

“I am 72 years old, and I am tired of burying children,” Hambrick said. “And I don’t want other parents to live through this.”

Evans and her two daughters, Danielle and Courtney, emphasized how a death due to drunk driving affects an entire family. Evans’ husband Dan, was killed March 11, 2006, when a drunk driver flew over the median on Interstate 10 in New Orleans East and smashed into Dave Evans’ car as he was on his way to work. While his car sat on the road, another car came up behind and smashed into the rear of his car.

When police finally got to him, Evans said her husband wanted to make sure the other victims were OK. Evans was 42 when he died. The drunk driver was 19 and had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. After a long trial, the man was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for vehicular homicide.

The toll on the Evans family has been severe. Danielle said she is angry and curt most of the time. Courtney said she has problems at school, and it is hard for her to let go. She wears her father’s watch all the time and refuses to take it off.

Like Hambrick, the Evans family says the drunk drivers made bad decisions. Danielle Evans said the man who killed her father has a chance to change in prison.

“We don’t have that chance now,” Danielle said.

The matter of making the right choice was also the theme of Braggs’ story. A resident of Bienville, near Shreveport, Braggs’ life was torn apart on Oct. 8, 1996, when a drunk driver slammed into her car at 105 mph, killing her husband and two of her three sons.

“It’s up to all of you to make the right choice,” Braggs said.

Braggs herself was severely injured in the accident and remained in a coma for four days. She underwent years of surgery and rehabilitation. Today, she has eight metal plates in her body holding bones together. The most tragic thing is her 5-year-old son had to be taken off life support because his brain functions had ceased and she didn’t want him to live as a “vegetable.”

Though not much solace to Braggs, the drunk driver was killed in the accident. He was driving a pickup truck, and the force of the collision threw him through the truck’s rear window with a bottle of whiskey still in his hand.

“I want to make a difference,” Bragg said at the end of her story. “It hurts to lose three loved ones, especially my two babies. But my prayer to you is that you all remember this story and not get behind the wheel of a car and drink and drive.”

There are 22 Victims Impact Panels in the state. Lamz said he will conduct another panel in December and continue to hold the panels twice a year.