For the last 10 years, my life has been sort of split.  For the first 3 of those 10 years life couldn’t be better.  Every vacation day I had was spent on my love of fly fishing, my passion in life.  I worked for EDS (17 years total), loved my job, traveled – everything was perfect.  My children were grown (1 boy, 1 girl) I knew what I wanted out of life and was getting there.

The last 7 years of my life have been very different.  One day while fly fishing, I was hit (as a pedestrian) by a drunk driver.  That put me in a hospital for the next 3 months, then they sent me home in a wheelchair.  I since have become an avid supporter of MADD – and spend time helping them raise money and speak at their victim impact panels that they hold for anyone who has received a DUI, DWI, MIP.  It’s hard for me to talk about my life, but it’s also so important that folks see the other side of their ticket.  Briefly what happened to me:

I was 30 feet from the road down an embankment. First the drunk driver's truck hit my truck roof to roof, then rolled off it and hit me, trapping me underneath it. His one ton truck then trapped and dragged me over the ground, through a barbed wire fence (a fence post broke my back) and finally rolled off me after 20 feet. I ended up with a broken back, shattered pelvis (hundreds of pieces), broken ribs, punctured lung, ruptured bladder, broken left arm/wrist/hand/fingers. I had other injuries as well. I spent 1 month in ICU and another 2 months in the hospital before I got to go home. I've had 16 surgeries in the last 6 years, spent over 11 months in a hospital and I am still in a wheelchair. I have enough metal in me to build a small building. The kid that hit me had nothing, and he took away my way of life, my job, my independence. Don't think it can't happen to you, because it can in an instant. This kid wasn't falling down drunk. He had had a couple of beers and though he was okay to drive home. His reaction time was slow, and that is what caused this. His truck drifted into the other lane, and he over-corrected getting it back into the right lane. This was also his first offense. Moral of the story is, don't' drink and drive. It CAN happen to you, don't let it! Please, please call a cab, a tow truck or plan ahead to have a DD. Don't let my life become yours - it sucks.