Originally Posted by Banjo

That's quite a beautiful piece. Like you, I was impacted by drunk drivers too. My mother and grandmother were hit by a drunk driver back in October 1999. Somehow, they survived. They were hit as they were getting out of the car. my grandmother ended up being pinned under my parents' car. They had to lift the car to get the tire off her leg. But before she was pinned to the ground, she was holding onto the bumper for approximately 30 to 50 feet along while being impacted by the drunk driver. She let go before hitting the other car in front of her. Had she held on, her skull would had been crushed and died. She ended up with injuries to her legs, several stitches on her face, a broken nose and many, many big bruises all over her body.

She stayed in the hospital for a few weeks and came home, she lives in the basement but could not walk downstairs. So the insurance agency rented a hospital bed, walker and all the necessary equipments for her to use on the main floor of the house. It took her quite a while, but she actually made a full recovery. But she does experience pain from time to time, not a lot but a little at a time. The damaged and swollen muscles in her leg that was pinned under the tire is still there but she is able to do everything she was able to before the collision.

My mother was getting out of the car, but somehow ended up back in the car. She has no recollection of what happened between the bright headlights and then in the hospital. She bled from her head and yes, she suffered mild brain damage, a broken collar bone which has caused a lot of pain for her over the years and still do cause pain but she is used to it, it isn't as bad it used to be but it does hurt. I am just glad the brain damage was not severe or anything like that. She is the same person, but just somewhere affected at times. It affected me in a big way, her signing ability was not as good as it used to be. She can sign and understand what I say but sometimes I have to repeat and clarify what I am saying, but she is not simple-minded or anything like that. She's quite good at a lot of things.

If you took a look at the car, you would be baffled at how they survived. The car was completely destroyed. Had my mother been a few inches from where she was found in the car, she would had been... I can't even say it.

What really made my blood boiled was when the judge shared some sympathy toward the drunk driver and let him off the hook with no probation after 2 years of legal processing and all that. Unbelievable. Where was the sympathy toward my mother and grandmother?

What if they had not survived that very night? Would he be in jail? Especially when he already had a long rap sheet? That's what really got to me. Why would they let a man like him walk a free man and put the others' lives at stake?

(sigh)

Oh well.