PHOTO
TWO WOLVES-CHEROKEE- IDLE NO MORE CANADA- USA-MEXICO-AUSSIES, KIWIS- GIVE THE WORLD THE MESSAGE- from the First Peoples 10,000 years- as old as people time- Good and Evil- the World's people must take the evil away from UN and Political stripes who all have hijacked our planet- it's time ... don't cha think?
Billy Currington's friend....Gary Allen... one of thesaddest song... about youth... drinking/drugging and driving....PLEASE DON'T DRINK/DRUG AND DRIVE... please
Gary Allan - Don't Tell Mama I Was Drinking
Entity: UMG Content Type: Sound Recording ( NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT INTINDED ) A very sad but o so real song !! How many lives have been lost due to drunk driving?? The last picture tell the story "IT'S NOT WORTH IT " so please don't drink and drive
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AND THOSE SUFFERING FROM ABUSIVE PARENTS ESPECIALLY.... DRINKING AND DRUGGING ABUSE...... PLEASE KNOW WE LOVE U SO MUCH....and walked this talk like so many of billy currington's tarnished angels...... thinking if we were just a little more perfect.... the adults who own us.... would perhaps love us just a little better.... and protect us from mind rape deliberate cruelty, physical torture.... and sexual abuse....... because children and youth are truly God's innocents here on earth.....
Billy Currington's life... and his country music debut "Walk A little Straighter Daddy..... says more about it all... and touched children and youngbloods from ANON etc. than any song or video... it's the truth music... raw... real and righteous... and billy currington nails it.... with a song... he started writing this song that stole our hearts.... and broke them... at 12 years of age...
Boy have I been there.... on both sides of the table.... this simple stunning song and that 'voice'... and that billy currington with the southern soul that only can be born to you.... Georgia's backwoods country boy.... told it like it is.... for all the youngbloods.... who know real and raw... and the truth song.... Billy Currington will always have tarnished angels like him.... for fans..... because we walked.... his talk.... and lived to tell the tale....
Billy Currington- WALK A LITTLE STRAIGHTER DADDY
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ROBIN WILLIAMS... a tranished angel brother....RECOVERY AND HOPE- I love u brothers and sisters... recovery and honesty a hard row 2 hoe.... the only road 2 hoe... Serenity Prayer
Alcholics are God's Rodeo Clowns- poor me... poor me... pour me another drink.... u will do shit that even the devil goes... DUDE!
The Serenity Prayer
Path God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr
Robin Williams on Alcoholics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtPp_xIpC4
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CLASSIFIED TEACHES US ALL A LESSON WITH THIS INCREDIBLE SONG..... OF THE FACT.... THAT LIFE WORKS .... IF U WORK IT....and all the bullshit and beans that get dumped on u.... raise up baby...... you can overcome and empower yourself ....oh yes u can....Classified carved these words in stone on the hearts of us all .... who have lived this... and actually survived broken angel wings and all....
...BY THE BY... our David Myles.... Canada's Lyle Lovett and Buddy Holly ....also wrapped up in Canada's Flag joins Classified...proving that a brilliant song and brilliant voices... and imagination.....can truly inspire.... DON'T U EVER GIVE UP..
(cried- seen it...and lived it)....
Classified - The Day Doesn't Die
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TARNISHED ANGELS OF BROKEN YOUTH... are nev-a going to be perfect- but we're better than our parents and caregivers were... and their's before them.... break the chain of abuse- ONE BILLION RISING..
For each an every youngblood.... please know millions and millions of us love and support you.... you are NOT throwaway toys or trashdrops.... each and every one of you is a treasure as individual and as beautiful as a raindrop with the sun sparkling on it so beautifuly it takes our breath away...... each and every one of you are 'would be' artists, musicians, poets, scientists, inventors, spiritual guiders, history and keepers of the written word... so many things... all things... and we love you... admire you.... please don't give up on us.... we need you terribly. Thank you Jimmy Wayne.... and all your friends along the way..... lonliness and hoplessness and despair knows no race, colour, creed or orientiation... it's just a soul stealer..... let's take back our world ... and our beautiful youngbloods.... each and every one...
IT'S NOT WHERE YOU'VE BEEN- IT'S WHERE YOU'RE GOING
Jimmy Wayne.mov (Please help homeless kids and youngbloods- USA 1.7 Million 2010 (much higher/Canada hundreds of thousands and so on)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0mOjYAllQo
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Taps out to Classified 4 the homeless and young Canadian artists choosing such wonderful organizations to support- the poor, disabled, homeless ... real people
Canada's Top Music Talent Helps Pepsi Refresh The World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgXJayoijjg
Hedley, Johnny Reid, Jully Black, Classified, the Trews, Billy Talent and Stereos have more in common than music: they believe in doing good
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SOMETIMES- CLEAN AND SOBER- YA JUST HAVE TO MOVE ON...
Sometimes the only way to be free of the drugs/drinking and being drunk is to move on..... And unfortunately..... the Christmas season and Graduations r the hardest for so many- and getting in the same old rut seems 2 cheer way2 many so-called- friends
"I'm Movin' On" - Rascal Flatts Official Music Video- RASCAL FLATTS
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DRUNK DRIVER MURDER CANADIANS- NIGHT BEFORE- MOURNING AFTER- no more excuses- no more abuses- u murder and maim our children, families and destroy more lives than guns
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/07/drunk-driver-murder-canadians-night.html
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Loaded on the road
Lucky to have dodged dr unk-driving bullet
MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE
Editor’s Note
Michael Lightstone is a staff repor ter for The Chronicle Herald.
I’m not a big drinker. But once, decades ago, I wasdrunk behind the wheel of my car and I have been a passenger in vehicles operated by intoxicated drivers.
A former co-worker — a nice, decent guy — died in a highway crash many years ago in another province as a result of a drunkdriving disaster o f his own doing that occurred after a party.
I’ve also had two dangerously close calls on the road involving impaired drivers heading in my direction .
One scary experience happened on Highway 103, outside Halifax, during a sunny summer afternoon. My wife and I were driving to Lunenburg to spend the night while our small children were b eing minded by a friend.
It was the early 1990s, and it was the first time we’d seized the opportunity for an overnight parental break.
The drive was easy and lovely. Suddenly, things changed.
A man driving a car on the opposite side of the highway, a single lane in each direction, pulled out to pass a vehicle reasonably far from our car. He was travelling downhill; I was about to drive up the hill.
Past the time when almost all drivers would have shifted back into the proper lane after successfully passing a vehicle, this car remained on our side of the road. "He’s not going to move over," I thought, "and his car is getting awfully close to smashing into ours."
Luckily, the menacing motorist was not going too fast and managed to keep his vehicle in a straight line.
I pulled over to the shoulder of the road, which was narrow and bordered by a guardrail, and came to a near-stop while the other car kept travelling toward the city on the wrong side of the road.
A phone call later to the RCMP provided us with this sigh-of-relief outcome: The other driver was drunk, and s o on after our encounter, rolled his car off the highway. Police said he survived the crash, and no one else who faced him on the road that day was hurt.
And — my wife felt like telling the officer — our kids weren’t or phaned.
So, like many average Canadians who have dodged bullets fired by alcohol-fuelled drivers, I’m lucky that I wasn’t hurt (when I was young and stupid and taking risks) or killed — or that I didn’t injure someone else, or cause their totally avoidable death.
Others have not been so fortunate.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, about 2,541 people were killed in road crashes in 2010 in this country. Of those, MADD "estimates that at a minimum 1,082 . . . were impairment- related" fatalities, the organization’s website says. It says this figure is conservative due to under-reporting.
In 2010, about 63,821 people were hurt in Canada in crashes involving impaired vehicle operators, MADD’s website adds.
Behind these faceless statistics, of course, are victims, their relatives, friends, co-workers and others affected by alcohol- or drug-related crashes.
Lots of the deceased or injured may have been like me: first-time impaired drivers who acted irresponsibly, recklessly and treacherously. Many others were perhaps addicted to alcohol.
Then there are the innocent victims — men, women and children killed or hurt in crashes caused by intoxicated drivers. The human cost is sad and appalling; the social cost is just mind-boggling .
MADD says that in Canada in 2010, impairment-related road crashes causing deaths, injuries and property damage cost around $20.6 billion, "using a social cost model" prepared by the federal government.
In Nova Scotia, the annual health, social and economic costs of harmful alcohol use to citizens amounted to $419 million, said a provincial government report six years ago tied to a responsibledrinking plan the province rolled out .
The plan was unveiled in 2007 at a medical centre in the Halifax region. Health-care workers heard one in five Nova Scotians who drink booze do so in a way that harm fu lly affects their own health and well-being.
They heard harmful liquor use accounts for an average of 230 deaths per year, 3,100 hospital admissions and 42,000 hospital days. As well, heavy drinking is associated with ill health from chronic diseases.
Now, here we are 72 months after the government announced its strategy to combat the harmful effects o f excessive drinking in Nova Scotia. Has the culture of accepting the misuse of liquor been replaced by one of safe, health-conscious consumption with reasonable limits?
Nope. Not even close.
Are p eople still drinking and driving, killing themselves and/or others by doing so? The answer’s obvious.
Ask police officers, paramedics, firefighters, MADD officials and medical personnel in the province’s emergency rooms. Ask family members of the dead and the survivors of drunk-driving crashes.
Unfortunately, our road casualties are a symptom of a deeper malaise in Canada’s Ocean Playground.
"Alcohol intoxication, risktaking, binge-drinking, under-age drinking are all apparently a rite of passage in Nova Scotia. It is part of our heritage," John Ross, an emergency department physician in Halifax, said in a pointed commentary published July 27 in The Chronicle Herald Weekend.
I was a dumb and fo olhardy 23-year-old, back in 1979, when I drove home alone, at night, impaired by too much beer.
It’s a sobering life lesson I had the good fortune to learn outside of a trauma unit or a pine box.
PHOTO
An RCMP constable performs a breathalyzer test on a motorist during a roadside check in Surrey, B.C., in 2010. DARRYL DYCK • CP
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Why wld M.A.D.D. even consider taking part in any discussion about distribution of liquour???? seriously??? a drunk driver severly injured 7 of us back in 1965 and lived 2 hurt more people in subsequent road drunk kills- be4 he wiped himself out- God was waiting on that one.... seriously???
NOVA SCOTIA MADD: NS Tories misrepresenting its views
Suggestion that group backs corner store booze sales ‘dirty politics’
MICHAEL MacDONALD THE CANADIAN PRESS
The CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving says Nova Scotia’s opposition Progressive Conservatives have engaged in "dirty politics" by suggesting the group supports the party’s proposal to introduce the sale of beer and wine in corner stores.
Andrew Murie says a Tory discussion paper released in May includes references to MADD Canada that leave the impression the national charitable group isn’t opposed to the idea even though the opposite is true.
"It gave the impression we were supportive of this," Murie said in an interview. "It’s dirty politics, let’s be honest."
Murie said he was stunned when he read the document because his group made a presentation to Baillie in February that included the group’s position on corner stores and grocery stores.
"I was very disapp ointed and I told them that," Murie says, referring to a subs equ ent call he made to the par ty.
The discussion paper includes a paragraph explaining that MADD believes that provincial liquor boards do a good job controlling liqu or prices and accessibility, and there’s a list of alcohol-related measures the group endorses.
The list inclu des allowing alcohol in age-restricted theatres, re-corking of wine purchased in restaurants and permitting patrons to bring their own wine to restaurants. A final point makes a vague reference to a "grocery store model."
Murie says that point is misleading because the group, in its presentation to the party, was specifically referring to allowing the sale of alcohol inside grocery stores through government-run kiosks.
The paper does not include any mention of MADD’s opposition to the private sale of beer and wine in corner stores and grocery stores, which is the focus of the discussion paper.
MADD’s denunciation of the proposal comes at an awkward time for Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie, whose party is gearing up for a provincial election. A vote must be held before June 2014.
Baillie says he understood that MADD wasn’t opposed to corner store sales so long as the party introduced other measures to impose strict controls.
"They made a presentation to us, which we quoted directly from," Baillie said in an interview. "We weren’t putting any words in their mouth ."
When asked if the party would change the discussion paper to reflect MADD’s position, Baillie said: "If their position is different, then I respect it. I’m not going to argue with them about it. … If that was an error on our part, then of course we’ll correct it."
Baillie says allowing the sale of b eer and wine in corner stores and grocery stores — without oversight from Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. employees — would be good for struggling rural stores.
"Where this has been done, rural jobs have been saved and new jobs have been created," he says. "It doesn’t cost a cent to implement ."
He says expanding the number of government-run stores isn’t the answer because the publicly owned liquor corporation can’t control its costs, adding that Nova Scotia Liquor’s operating expenses have doubled in the past decade while its volume o f sales has increased only 11 per cent.
Baillie also rejects the argument that allowing more privately run stores to sell beer and wine will result in less oversight of alcohol sales to minors and drunk drivers.
"I don’t buy that," he says. "I exp ect our corner stores and grocery stores to respect the liquor laws of the province."
Murie says that’s wishful thinking .
"Who works at convenience stores? Nineteen and 20-year-olds," he says. "They want their friends to get access to alcohol. (The store owners’) motive is profit, not public safety."
Murie also says liquor prices would rise in a more privatized system .
"S ome o f the highest prices in Canada are in Alberta under a privatized system," he says.
Finance Minister Maureen MacDonald has said the NDP government isn’t interested in Baillie’s plan.
MacDonald says access to alcohol isn’t a problem in Nova Scotia, where there are about 50 privately run agency stores in remote parts of the province that aren’t served by a government outlet.
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DRINKING AND DRIVING... SEATBELTS... SEATBELTS...
EDITORIAL: Teach kids that seatbelts save lives
July 25, 2013 - 4:06pm By THE CHRONICLE HERALD
Seatbelts save lives, and we need to find ways to educate teens about that fact. (CP / File)
For most Nova Scotians, doing up a seatbelt when entering a vehicle is as natural as getting dressed in the morning.
But for some, using a seatbelt is not automatic.
Police cited a lack of seatbelt use as a factor behind the carnage in a tragic car crash in Inverness County this week. Three young men died and at least two other people sustained serious injuries.
Of seven occupants of the small car that flipped when it left the road, six were thrown from the vehicle.
When accidents occur, seatbelts keep occupants in a vehicle, which is safer than to be ejected from it.
The use of seatbelts became mandatory in Nova Scotia in 1985 and seatbelt use has been rising since.
In 2010, about 90 per cent of us buckled up.
That still put us behind eight other Canadian provinces (in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, almost 97 per cent of drivers and passengers belt themselves in), and ahead of only Prince Edward Island.
Young people, particularly males, are least likely to buckle up.
Up to one in four young men in our province isn’t bothering with a seatbelt, says a 2012 road safety report published by the province.
That is bad news, because statistics reveal that young people are more apt to be involved in fatal accidents and using a seatbelt reduces the risk of death or serious disability by about half.
For children, the use of infant carriers and child and booster seats reduce the risk of death or injury by about 70 per cent.
Inattention, speeding, fatigue and impairment with alcohol or drugs all increase the chance of an accident — but chances of surviving that accident go up for drivers and occupants who wear seatbelts.
So how do we teach young people to buckle up?
Raising the penalty for not wearing a seatbelt, now $169.91, is one option.
Kids do what their parents do, so parents have a responsibility to use seatbelts and to teach their children to do so.
While the Nova Scotia Driver’s Handbook for new drivers has three pages on the virtues of using seatbelts, they are on page 116 in a chapter on safety. Given the importance of the issue, that message should be front and centre.
The model may be campaigns that have changed behaviours around smoking. Smoking rates among young people have been dropping, partly because of anti-smoking modules in the province’s education curriculum.
Although elementary schoolchildren learn some injury prevention information that includes the use of seatbelts, it’s time to review just how effective that instruction is.
We need to make sure that teenagers who get into vehicles on fine summer nights will buckle up, a move that could save their lives
http://thechronicleherald.ca/editorials/1144284-editorial-teach-kids-that-seatbelts-save-lives
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EMILY WILLIAMS
ewilliams@herald.ca
Emily Williams is a graduate of the University of King’s College and lives in Dartmouth.
A non-drinker’s perspective on the adulation of alcohol
I don’t drink.
I hold no deep-seated convictions on the matter. I have no family history of alcoholism, no impaired-driving-related tragedy in my past, no horror stories of friends who asphyxiated on their own vomit or experienced rohypnol- related sexual assault.
I simply have no interest.
At 24, I am slowly becoming less of an anomaly. For the last decade or so, I’ve had a litany of excuses at my disposal whenever I found myself being offered alcohol: I’m driving, I have class in the morning, I’m not feeling well, and so on.
I always had these on the tip of my tongue because, first as a high school and then a university student , almost anything was accepted more readily than "I don’t drink."
We hear all the time about how alcohol is glamourized in popular culture, but I hesitate to say that we do the same thing here. Drinking isn’t romanticized so much as it just is .
Halifax is a strange place not to drink. As Maritimers, we pride ourselves in our supposed inborn ability to drink those from away under the table. We begin drinking young and alcohol consumption is deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric. (In my experience, when people from other parts of Canada describe Maritime culture, the first things that come to mind are fiddles, fish and liquor.) It isn’t hard to see why alcohol consumption is s o dominant here — we are known as a friendly people, and alcohol is mainstream culture’s primary social lubricant of choice.
The region is saturated in it — we produce it, we sing about it, we embrace the cultural stereotype of Maritimers as heavy drinkers with iron stomachs.
On the uglier side o f things, people often drink to forget, and goodness knows we are not short on hardships or tragedy here. And on top of all that, Halifax is a university town, populated by young p eople who can easily become a bit starry-eyed in the face of their newfound independence and access to legal alcohol.
S o in addition to the regional drinking culture, Nova Scotia’s young people are also exposed to, and part of, the international youth/student equivalent. The popular-culture-influenced normalization and glamorization of behaviours like binge-drinking and underage drinking is inescapable and it is comp ounded by the region’s own treatment of such matters. Young people are hardly all unintelligent and lacking in control, but they are as susceptible to influence as anyone, and resp onsible alcohol consumption is not glorified in nearly the same way.
In a place where exposure to alcohol is all but inevitable (and begins at a young age), it is important to teach the corresponding necessary responsibilities at a young age, and it is clear that it is here where we are falling short. While the majority of people, if asked, would likely say that driving drunk is all but unthinkable, one need only look at impaireddriving statistics to see that there is still much work to be done.
I do realize that we are working to do better in this area. I myself saw a number of deeply affecting presentations from MADD Canada in high school, and you’d be hard-pressed to sit through a lo cal television broadcast without seeing a commercial warning of the dangers of impaired driving. Outreach programs like these do good work and that shouldn’t be downplayed, but it is important not to let up. Complacency is dangerous, not only because there are still tragedies, but because every year a new group of teenagers drinks for the first time.
These changes do not begin and end with youth . After all, the under-25 sector of the population certainly doesn’t make up the entirety of the impaired-driving statistics themselves. Increased cultural responsibility has to be wide-sweeping across all ages. In order to teach greater responsibility, everyone must shoulder some of that responsibility themselves.
Drinking is a part of our culture and it isn’t going anywhere; the oft-associated irresponsibility can and must .
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DRUNK DRIVER MURDER CANADIANS- NIGHT BEFORE- MOURNING AFTER- no more excuses- no more abuses- u murder and maim our children, families and destroy more lives than guns
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/07/drunk-driver-murder-canadians-night.html
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PEOPLE MAGAZING 1983- DRUNK DRIVERS KILLS 2 MANY
Outrage Over Drunk Driving
By Peter Carlson, Joshua Hammer
Across America, Grieving Survivors Band Together to Fight a Menace That Kills More Than 22,000 on U.S. Highways Each
Early Saturday morning, May 28, Bryan Poole, a silver-haired, 54-year-old bear of a man, took a sledgehammer and chisel and hacked a hole in the cement curb next to U.S. 290 in Houston, Texas. The next day Poole solemnly anchored a white cypress-wood cross reinforced with steel rods in the hole, constructing an unofficial but starkly effective memorial (right) to his son Larry. "In memory of Larry Bryan Poole," reads the cross's brass plaque, "born 10/1/51, beloved son, brother-in-law, grandson, uncle, nephew, cousin and friend. Killed at this location 1/21/83 by a drunk driver."
As Bryan Poole's eloquent memorial suggests, America is no longer ignoring or forgetting the victims of drunk drivers. After a decade in which intoxicated motorists injured some 10 million persons and killed an average of 70 people a day, a grass-roots movement has arisen across the nation to demand an end to the highway carnage. It is a movement composed of people like Bryan Poole—the relatives and friends of the victims of drunk drivers. Organized in the last few years into powerful activist organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (181 chapters in 39 states) and Remove Intoxicated Drivers (134 chapters in 31 states), they have lobbied for tougher legislation, monitored traffic courts, and used the media to revolutionize public perception of drinking and driving. "Somehow citizen activists have struck a public nerve," says Robert Reeder, general counsel of Northwestern University's Traffic Institute. "The movement will not go away very quickly. The people who form the backbone of these groups have deep reasons for being a member."
These organizations have struggled to overcome what District of Columbia activist Jerry Sachs wryly terms "an entrenched American stereotype—the cool guy cruising along, beer in one hand, other hand on the wheel and his third hand around the girl." Absurd as it is, that attitude in many states remains entrenched in law. In states like Texas, Nevada and Kentucky, slackly written drunk-driving statutes are riddled with loopholes, making prosecution difficult. Drunk drivers sometimes escape penalty by refusing breath alcohol tests. Without the test results, police are often unable to prove drunkenness, allowing the driver to plea-bargain for a lesser charge. Across the country there are convicted drunk drivers—some who have killed people in accidents—who serve no prison terms and retain their driver's licenses.
But after more than three years of hard-nosed lobbying by organizations like MADD and RID, that situation is changing. Since 1980 virtually every state has toughened its laws on drinking and driving. Thirty-five states now define drunkenness by a specific level of blood alcohol—usually .1 percent—and nationwide there is a trend to stiffen the penalty for refusing breath alcohol tests. In 17 states drunk drivers now automatically lose their licenses for a first offense, and in many states they may face jail terms. These new laws already have saved lives. Highway fatalities—more than half of which are alcohol-related—dropped from 49,000 in 1981 to under 44,000 in 1982 and are running nearly 4 percent lower in 1983. "Deaths have gone down from the new stiffer laws, no doubt about it," says a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The revolution is far from over. MADD now wants to strengthen the web of state laws and is lobbying for a legal drinking age of 21 across the country. In the following pages, PEOPLE examines the human toll of drunk driving—accidents that more and more people view as crimes.
Meanwhile Bryan Poole makes a weekly visit to the white cross he planted along a Houston highway. He swabs the grit from the brass plaque and sweeps up the trash that accumulates around the cross. He does not remove the shattered windshield glass of his son's car. He leaves that where it lies, against the curb where Larry died.
The terrible toll on the road-five case studies
Slaughter at 100 mph in L.A.
Racing along an L.A. freeway at 100 mph at 2:25 a.m. on June 4, the Mercedes 450 SEL sedan driven by former model Phyllis Hall, 26, spun out of control over the median divider, leapt through the air, and slammed into an approaching Chevrolet (see photo of wreckage, p. 18). In just seconds four of the six young people in the Chevy were dead, and another died in the hospital. (One victim, Karin Paige, 19, is pictured.) The slightly injured Hall, whose blood alcohol level was a phenomenally high .25, had a previous drunk-driving conviction (she was given one year's probation and a suspended fine) and was driving her boyfriend's car with an expired registration. (Police say the other driver was also intoxicated.) Hall was charged with five counts of second-degree murder and bail was set at $250,000. "There's a hue and cry after her like a fox and hounds," says her attorney. "It's her first time in prison, and she's terrified." But public opinion is not sympathetic to Hall, who faces a maximum of 15 years to life if convicted. On the day of her bond hearing, another offender became the first drunk driver to be convicted of murder in L.A. County.
A wedding eve tragedy in Pennsylvania
For Pennsylvania scholar-athlete Ed Hartman Jr., 22 (right), the night of May 27 was a time of exhilarating satisfaction and anticipation. Two weeks earlier he had graduated from Pennsylvania's evangelical Geneva College, after earning a Division II, NAIA All-America honorable mention at quarterback his junior year. The next morning he was to marry his high school sweetheart, Marybeth Diamond, a pretty graduate of Butler County Community College. That night, after an emotional wedding rehearsal dinner, Ed Hartman and five buddies—four of whom were devout Christian nondrinkers—piled into a car and headed for Pittsburgh. "We just wanted to get Eddie away from Marybeth one last time," one explained. Twenty minutes later, they were struck head-on by an auto traveling in the wrong lane on Route 28 in Etna, Pa. Eddie and one friend were killed. The other driver, unemployed boilermaker Lawrence Rodgers, 43, had been angry about his failing marriage, according to his wife, a passenger who was injured in the crash. She said Rodgers downed 15 to 22 shots of whiskey (his blood alcohol level registered a staggering .27), then sped into oncoming traffic in an attempt to kill both her and himself. "I heard the phone ring and didn't think anything of it," recalls Marybeth of the tragedy. "Then I could hear people crying downstairs. Everyone was shaking and their faces were white. My mind thought, 'What is the worst thing that could ever happen to me?' Then I knew—The terrible thing is that Eddie never had a drink in his life," she says. "He was so opposed to it—and he was killed by a drunk driver." The slightly injured Rodgers is now in county jail awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree murder and a raft of other charges.
A needless death in San Jose
With eight convictions since 1978 for driving under the influence (DUI) and a history of drug abuse, San Jose computer repairman Abel Esparza, 30 (above), was a disaster waiting to happen. "We did everything we could to keep him off the road," says his brother, Marco, 20, who often shuttled Abel to and from dates and jobs. But early on the afternoon of June 6, Esparza—whose license had been suspended for years—got the keys to his brother's 1979 Mustang from a friend. Five miles down the road his car grazed bicyclist Connie Crook, 25 (causing massive multiple contusions from which she is still recovering), then plowed into her bicycling fireman husband, Kevin. The car carried him 300 feet, killing him. Esparza, who had been drinking and was high on PCP (angel dust), was charged with vehicular manslaughter and two counts of felony DUI. "We asked the police several times before the crash to take Abel to the hospital," says Marco. "This didn't need to happen." Abel, who is in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, faces a five-year prison term if convicted—faint solace for Kevin Crook's angry and grieving kin. Says Clay Gregory, Connie's brother-in-law and legal counsel: "The irony is that Kevin's job as a fireman-paramedic was scraping people off the streets. This incident has all the qualities of a random murder."
A bicyclist's killer is still on the road
Things were going well for Kathy Newland (below): At 19, she had moved to Arlington, Texas from her small Missouri hometown and found a fiancé, good friends and a job at a cafeteria. Then, as she bicycled to work on May 19, 1982, Kathy was struck from behind and thrown 232 feet by a van that veered onto the shoulder of the road. Despite the frantic efforts of paramedics, she died of massive neck and spinal injuries. The driver of the van, Patricia Ann Sanders, 22, was charged on arrest with driving while intoxicated (her breath alcohol test registered .26), marijuana and amphetamine possession, and involuntary manslaughter. Despite 16 entries on her driving record over the previous five years—including five accidents—Sanders was released on $3,000 bond within 24 hours of the collision. Pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter last March 25, she was sentenced to five years' probation and a $1,500 fine. District Judge Don Leonard has defended the leniency of the sentence. "Sanders is what you consider a minor violator," he told a local newspaper. "It was just teenage stuff." Patricia Ann Sanders did not show up at a hearing on her license revocation and may be legally driving in Texas.
A verdict divides a Texas town
Charges of ethnic prejudice have fueled the New Braunfels, Texas furor over William Savage (above), a 23-year-old Army private who mowed down four members of a poor Mexican family last October. Returning to base after a night of partying, Savage said he "felt a bump" and noticed the windshield had shattered. He stopped the car and walked back, coming upon the broken bodies of laborer Ruben Sauceda, 26, his common-law wife, Hortencia, and their two children, ages 1 and 2, whom his 1970 VW had struck as they walked along the highway. A blood alcohol test revealed that Savage's alcohol level was .226—more than twice the legal limit. Nevertheless, at his trial for one count of manslaughter, the jury of 11 Anglos and one Hispanic decided against a jail term, imposing only a $5,000 fine and 10 years' probation. Hispanic leaders were outraged. "We were repulsed that a man could kill a family of four and get away with probation," says Austin lawyer Mack Martinez, an attorney for the Committee for Justice for All, which picketed the New Braunfels courthouse until Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox announced on May 16 that he would review the case. He has said that Savage also would be tried on manslaughter charges in the deaths of the other three family members. DA Bill Schroeder, who prosecuted Savage (now back at Fort Sam Houston), has little sympathy for the anti-Savage movement. "The jury didn't see brown, they didn't see white," he says. "They saw a young soldier who had never had a problem in his life." Counters Committee for Justice attorney Ruben Sandoval: "The Sauceda case is an embarrassment to the national movement to get drunk drivers off the streets."
Where two states meet, a bloody weekend ritual
At 1:30 a.m. the rock music is still blaring, the beer still flowing at the Bullpen Bar, a raucous roadhouse on Route 32 in Wisconsin, just a hundred yards from the Illinois border. A dozen teenagers spill groggily out the door and into their cars in the massive parking lot, screeching off into the darkness toward their suburban Chicago homes 30 or 40 miles away. As countless other bars in the border area empty out, hundreds more drink-impaired young drivers barrel off in the same direction, some carrying maps provided by bar-keeps to guide them over back roads infrequently patrolled by police.
The reckless border migration has become a weekend ritual for thousands of teenagers in the three and a half years since Illinois raised the drinking age from 19 to 21. Eleven other states followed suit in raising the threshold age for legal drinking, thereby helping to reduce the disproportionate number of teenage deaths on America's highways. (Although teens make up only 8 percent of the population and drive only 6 percent of the highway miles, they are involved in 15 percent of the fatal crashes. Fourteen of them die each day in alcohol-related accidents.) But Wisconsin has stubbornly resisted the trend, making it one of four states (with Hawaii, Vermont and Louisiana) that allow 18-year-olds to purchase hard liquor. The resulting phenomenon—familiar to many who reside in the border areas of adjoining states with disparate minimum drinking ages—has been the creation of an appalling highway hazard. Border-side bars and night spots have sprung up, luring teenagers across state lines on journeys that too often end in drunk-driving tragedies.
Despite a 28 percent decrease in highway deaths among 18-to-20-year-olds in Illinois since the new law took effect, drunk-driving deaths are up 10 percent in two Illinois counties adjacent to Wisconsin, saddling the state line with a grim nickname, "Blood Border." "We are aware of the death toll," said one 19-year-old as she sat in her car outside the Bullpen Bar. "We make nervous jokes at night: 'Be careful crossing the Bloodline.' "
Illinois police have watched the grisly events at Blood Border with mounting concern. "The figures are staggering," says Antioch Police Chief Charles Miller, whose town sits on the line. "Six years ago we arrested 17 drunk drivers a year. This year we have had 159 arrests since Jan. 1." The Illinois state police, who made a record 1,718 drunk-driving arrests last year on a single 37-mile stretch of the I-94 toll road south of the border, now station troopers at toll plazas to arrest anyone driving with open liquor bottles or beer cans. Assisting state and local police is a citizens' patrol called Extra Eyes, whose members cruise the area in CB-equipped cars, tracking down drunks. "There's a rolling bar on that highway," warns Extra Eyes patroller Lou Greenwald. The group was organized last year by the Illinois-based Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM), whose co-founder, editor Carol Brierly Golin, 54, has a poignant interest in keeping the Wisconsin-Illinois state line as bloodless as possible. Two summers ago her daughter, Ann Brierly, and a girlfriend were killed 11 days after Ann's high school graduation by a drunk driver who broadsided their pickup at an Antioch intersection. "If I had any idea what kind of traffic jungle it was up there," says Golin, who lives in Glencoe, Ill., "I would never have let her go. From our experience working with the state police at spotting drunk drivers, we think that close to one in four drivers is intoxicated. Inexperienced teenagers," she adds, "are the most vulnerable." Ann's killer, a 19-year-old sailor named Rodney Lackie, stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago, was on his way back to base after a day spent dropping acid and a night of drinking beer with a buddy at a Wisconsin bar. "If there had been a 21-year-old drinking age," says Golin, "Rodney could not have had any liquor in Wisconsin. Nor could he have gotten drunk and killed Ann."
Golin says she has no hatred for her daughter's killer, who was released from prison in June after serving one year for reckless homicide. Rather, her bitterness is directed toward those on the Wisconsin border who earn their livelihoods selling liquor to Illinois youths. "A bartender or bar owner who serves teenagers too much beer when he knows they have to drive 50 or 60 miles home at night is taking blood money," she declares. "I don't know how that kind of person sleeps at night."
Tragic aftermath of a fatal crash
Kevin Tunell was drunk. It was New Year's Eve, 1981. Champagne was flowing freely and Tunell was feeling good—a little too good to drive, it seemed to the guests at the second party he attended that night in northern Virginia. When Tunell, then 17, left to take his girlfriend home, friends begged him to surrender his car keys and accept a ride. He shrugged off the suggestion and roared into the night. At about 1:15, a few minutes after he dropped off his girlfriend, Tunell's silver Dodge station wagon swerved across the dividing line of Commonwealth Boulevard in Fairfax County at more than 50 mph, smacking into an oncoming Volkswagen. Kevin Tunell doesn't remember the accident, only his later interrogation at the police station.
Thirty minutes after the crash the phone rang in the home of Lou and Patty Herzog less than a mile away. A friend's report of the collision drew the couple to the accident site. There, in the stark illumination of highway flares and flashing red lights, they saw the shattered car of their 18-year-old daughter, Susan. Fearfully, Patty Herzog, 49, approached a policeman.
"Was it Susan?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied.
"Is she dead?"
"Yes."
The accident that caused Susan Herzog's death has permanently altered the lives of her parents and her killer. Both Kevin Tunell and the Herzogs have thrown their energies into the growing crusade against drunk driving. Lou, a 50-year-old retired Navy officer, and Patty Herzog joined Mothers Against Drunk Driving; Patty, vice-president of the local chapter, attends traffic court every Thursday to encourage local judges to crack down on drunks. Kevin Tunell has lectured against drunk driving almost full-time for the past 16 months, appearing in scores of high schools and on several TV and radio shows. But the common goal shared by these three activists has not eradicated the emotional wounds caused by the accident. A bitterness—even a hatred—festers between the Herzogs and Kevin Tunell.
It began at Tunell's trial for manslaughter in February 1982. The Herzogs asked Juvenile Court Judge Michael J. Valentine to give Tunell the maximum sentence—a year in jail. "We felt that a jail sentence was the least that Kevin should get," says Patty. Tunell had another idea: After pleading guilty, he told the judge that he wanted to speak to other teens about the dangers of drinking and driving. "There is no way I can change what I did that night," he says, "but I can try to change what other teenagers do behind the wheel."
Judge Valentine agreed. He stripped Tunell of his driver's license, placed him on probation until his 21st birthday, and sentenced him to lecture against drunk driving 40 hours a week for a year. The Herzogs were livid. "It was a travesty of justice," says Patty. "This is a trivial sentence."
Last spring the Herzogs initiated a civil suit against Tunell. In an out-of-court settlement, they received $100,000 from his insurance company—and a written promise that he will send them a dollar every Friday night for the next 18 years. "We told Kevin," Patty explains, "that the dollar-a-week assignment is so he will remember at least once a week when he writes Susan's name that he killed her."
Tunell has not forgotten. As Judge Valentine mandated, he spent a year lecturing against drunk driving at high schools across Virginia. When the year ended, Kevin continued speaking. Before taking a temporary break this summer to attend courses at Long-wood College in southern Virginia, Tunell had delivered more than 500 lectures.
But the Herzogs are not impressed. They have seen Tunell lecture, heard him on the radio, and watched him on television, and now the simple sight of him fills them with fury. "He should have given his year of service and then shut up," says Patty. Adds Lou: "This sentence has just made a celebrity out of him. I've always thought that it would have been much more impressive if, at the end of his presentation, a police officer walked out and said, 'Okay, Kevin, it's time to go back to jail!' "
The Herzogs' anger affects Tunell. "I can understand where they are coming from," he says, "but from my own experience, I think my sentence was more constructive than going to jail." Still, he has moments—even days—of distress. He feels haunted by his image as the "killer speaker" and wonders if his obsessive lecturing has done any good. Even now, 19 months after the accident, nightmares of car wrecks shatter his sleep. And not a day has passed, he says, when he hasn't thought about the crash. "I've never forgiven myself for what happened," he says. "It was so stupid, so dumb. If I have a daughter who gets to be 18, probably on that 18th birthday I'll have a hard time. Every New Year's Eve, when everybody else is singing Auld Lang Syne, I'll remember what went on."
Contributors:
Giovanna Breu,
Susan Deutsch,
Lianne Hart,
Nancy King,
Cable Neuhaus,
Maria Wilhelm.
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085540,00.html
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WEBSITE 2 GIVE MEMORIALS OF LOST FRIENDS N FAMILY 2 DRUNK DRIVERS
Drunk Driving Victim's Memorial
Alcohol impaired drivers kill many thousands of people in the US each year and thousands more world-wide. Despite a multitude of laws passed and millions of dollars spent on education and law enforcement, the problem stubbornly persists.
We created this memorial to put a face on the problem. It's one thing to hear statistics about people dying; it's quite another to see the actual faces of some of the many victims and read their heartfelt stories.
We hope that it will drive the point home to those who might otherwise drink and drive. Scroll down past the form to see what others have shared.
Did You Lose a Loved One in a Drunk Driving Accident?
Let the world know what happened by sharing their story. In the form below, please tell us about your loved one(s) and the alcohol-related accident in which they were victimized.
Here are some brief guidelines for your submission:
Please do...
•Include their name, age, home city, state and country
•Include specific details of the accident
•Send a picture of your loved one or of the accident scene
•Format your text so it's easy to read
Please don't...
•Include the drunk driver's name (liability issues)
•Include any profanity
•Use all capital letters (hard to read)
Please Share Your Drunk Driving Tragedy
By sharing your story, others may come to understand the enormous consequences of drinking and driving.
http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-memorial.html
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DRUNK DRIVER- CHECK THIS OUT CANADA- CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT 2 GOOGLE
2013-02-20 Access to Counsel - Constitutional Right to Google
A police officer saw Mr McKay, 2013 ABPC 13 drive through a red light. The officer stopped him, and found he smelled of liquor. When Mr McKay blew into a screening device, it registered a fail. The investigating officer arrested him and asked if he wanted to get legal advice. He did. The officer took him back to the detachment, and showed him White and Yellow Pages, a phone which allowed 411 inquiries, and a poster bearing the Legal Aid number. Mr McKay called Legal Aid. Afterwards, he told the officer that he spoke with someone. Thereafter, he provided breath samples which must have been over 80mg%, because he was charged.
At trial, Mr McKay, aged 20, explained that he is a child of the internet. He doesn't use phone books, and didn't understand 411. He needs Google to find a lawyer. Because the police failed to offer this option up front, they violated his right to counsel of choice.
The trial judge agreed.
I agree that your duty to provide a reasonable opportunity to retain and instruct counsel includes facilitating reasonable efforts to to identify a suitable lawyer. Web-based services now provide faster and more informative searches than most paper-based methods. Your offices (generally) permit internet access. I think a request to Google lawyers is a reasonable exercise of s.10(b) rights.
I don't agree that failure to present a web-browser in the cell block breaches a prisoner's s.10(b) rights. There are other reasonable methods of identifying a lawyer (such as calling a friend or relative who knows one). In my opinion, it does not breach s.10(b) to fail to list all his options. Perhaps your poster on the phone room wall should say:
"This office will accommodate all reasonable requests to identify and contact a lawyer of your choice."
You must facilitate the exercise of the right to counsel, but the prisoner must exercise his right diligently. I think Mr McKay should have asked to use Google.
If your prisoner asks for internet access, then you should allow it for the purposes of identifying a lawyer. But keep control of the situation. His efforts to identify a lawyer are not privileged. One prisoner may to search "Criminal defence lawyer Calgary". Another may want to type "How to beat the breath test".
Maybe you want to do the typing.
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Sobering stats on drunk drivers
Richard Russell -Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, May. 19 2010, 2:46 PM EDT
More than 1,100 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in Canada in 2007
Some more facts about these deaths:
•80.4 per cent were male
•67.2 per cent were owner-operators
•20.7 per cent were passengers
•11.7 per cent were pedestrians
•43.7 per cent of the deaths occurred in automobiles
•27.3 per cent in a truck or van
•11.1 per cent in an off-road vehicle
•5.6 per cent on a motorcycle
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-tips/sobering-stats-on-drunk-drivers/article4189621/
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ONE BILLION RISING- BREAKING THE CHAINS- CANADA MAN STYLE- no more excuses- no more abuses- stop abusing and bullying kids, women, disabled, men, aged... STOP IT... UR DRUNK RAGES DESTROY LIVES
CHECK OUT- breaking the chains of abuse- CLASSIFIED'S NEW VIEW 3foot tall- MEN BREAKING THE CHAINS- no more excuses... no more abuses- 3 FOOT TALL
Classified and David Myles: Press Play July 26
July 26, 2013 - 6:57pm By The Chronicle Herald
Nova Scotia's dynamic duo Classified and David Myles brought their quadruple-platinum talents to The Chronicle Herald on Friday for a special episode of Press Play. Classified will be rocking Georges Island on Saturday at the Smirnoff Red Door Island Party. But you can watch an exclusive performance here now.
» Download Inner Ninja by Classified (featuring David Myles) via iTunes
» Check out Classified's live shows
» Download David Myles's latest
» Check out David Myles live
CHECK OUT- breaking the chains of abuse- CLASSIFIED'S NEW VIEW 3foot tall- MEN BREAKING THE CHAINS- no more excuses... no more abuses- 3 FOOT TALL
OH MY GOD.... CLASSISIFIED HAS THE BEST BULLY VIDEO E-VA- Break the chains of abuse
VIBE Premiere: Classified '3 Foot Tall' Video-OFFICIAL VIDEO
VIBE Posted July 23, 2013 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BV_b9zTUvs&feature=player_embedded
In the follow-up to his chart-topping single "Inner Ninja," rapper Classified doesn't fall short of delivering his message on "3 Foot Tall." In the video, the Canadian spitter recruits a pint-sized voice box to battle against negative verbal warfare. "When you're alone, life can be a little rough/ It makes you feel like you're 3 foot tall/ When it's just you, well times can be tough/ When there's no one there to catch your fall," sings the toddler with a faux black eye. With words like "dummy," "loser," and the more sexually charged "faggot" and "lesbian" sprawled across the clip, the writings on the wall come at a time where digital bullying has run rampant in the younger generation, especially with the presence of social media. Still, it's the ability to overcome that stands above all. Watch the rapper also known as Luke Boyd preach the good word in the video below. - See more at: http://www.vibe.com/article/classified-3-foot-tall-video#sthash.q3GzUtE2.dpuf
AND WAY 2 MANY TIMES- KIDS, WOMEN, EVEN MEN- GETTING ABUSED- no more excuses.... no more
AND..MOVING ON 4 WOMEN and kids
- NO MORE BULLYING AND BULLYCIDES-
LINKS ON BULLYING AND CHILD ABUSE- (Mind Rape/Physical Torture/Sexual Assault)
FOR KIDS- TWEENS-TEENS-YOUNGBLOODS- But perhaps most of all..... each and every Canadain Adult- we must take more responsibility and be more vigilant:
To learn more about bullying and if u r being abused- check out:
www.stopcyberbullying.org
www.cyberbullying.novascotia.ca
www.prevnet.ca
www.cpha.ca/en/activities/safe-schools.aspx
http://needhelpnow.ca/app/en/ AND http://needhelpnow.ca/app/fr/
RespectED: Violence & Abuse Prevention
http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000294
www.kidshelpphone.ca
If you are a victim of bullying, call The Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868.
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DRUNK DRIVING- on the receiving end- drs. families. police..communities
In the ER, outrage over wanton road carnage
July 26, 2013 - 5:18pm By DR. JOHN ROSS
Dr. John Ross: "For every death we hear about, there are 10 to 15 injury victims we never hear about. That makes us all responsible for challenging this ridiculous culture of acceptance of alcohol abuse in Nova Scotia." (CHRISTIAN LAFORCE / File).
The phone jars me awake. A blurry 3-something on the clock. EHS Communications Centre calling to patch me together with the Life Flight physician, who has been woken up multiple times already, and a surgeon in Antigonish.
I stumble out of the room so as not to wake my wife. The Life Flight physician briefly recounts the futile attempt by the team, who landed at a roadside in Cape Breton, to help resuscitate a car crash victim — now the third fatality at the scene.
They are now flying to Antigonish where four other victims are being assessed and stabilized. They are what remains of the seven people, all under 21 years old, unbelted, who were in a subcompact car that went off the road.
The surgeon is now listing the patients and their injuries. My mind flips between what he is saying and visions of the organized chaos at the scene — the first person there, then fire department personnel, EHS paramedics, and police. Ejected kids everywhere, some alive, some dead.
Two hours later, the youths arrive, one by one, first by Life Flight, then by ground ambulance. From the scene to Antigonish to the Halifax Infirmary, the cast of many emergency care providers have done a fantastic job making sense of this senseless tragedy.
At the Infirmary, where this happens all too often, the trauma team goes to work — further treatments, CAT scans, many specialists, preparation for the operating room.
Then one of our amazing social workers or nurses will join me on the long hallway walk to the family room for the heart-wrenching job of breaking bad news and listening to too many questions I cannot answer.
What does the general public hear about this familiar tragedy? "Three more dead on N.S. highway," or something to that effect. Then something about the annual death toll so far; comparisons to previous years.
Is this worse? Is there a reason? Brief outrage, soul-searching, then the next story, and all is forgotten. What are we missing?
Let’s follow the common trajectory of the survivors from similar crashes. Surviving drivers face major legal and social consequences. Passengers suffer life-long mixtures of the effects of acquired brain injury, followup surgeries, surgical complications, intensive care, chronic pain, paralysis, depression, addictions, and employment problems, to name a few.
Families and friends are affected. PTSD counselling should be available for the first responders, but it is often forgotten, leaving them altered forever.
The majority of these crashes are the result of alcohol misuse. Alcohol poisons brain nerves, resulting in loss of inhibition ("life of the party"), poor decisions and risk-taking behaviour.
Sometimes intoxicated drivers crash into other vehicles with innocent victims. Those who survive end up being cared for by all of us through our public health care system.
For every death we hear about, there are 10 to 15 injury victims we never hear about. That makes us all responsible for challenging this ridiculous culture of acceptance of alcohol abuse in Nova Scotia.
Alcohol intoxication, risk-taking, binge-drinking, under-age drinking are all apparently a rite of passage in Nova Scotia. It is part of our heritage. The annual cull on our highways and waterways (drownings) and other 100 per cent preventable injuries are just collateral damage — acceptable I guess, because few seem to care.
At the same time, lots of people do seem to care about long wait times to see specialists or delays to get medical tests.
If there were fewer people with 100 per cent preventable injuries and illnesses related to alcohol abuse, seeing those specialists and using those tests — might there be better access for people whose medical problems are not of their own making?
When are we going to challenge the "fun lifestyle" marketing of beer and liquor corporations, the NSLC, binge-drinking promotion at bars, and our culture that believes that drinking large volumes of a nerve poison is normal?
Dr. John Ross is an emergency physician in Halifax.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1144571-in-the-er-outrage-over-wanton-road-carnage
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‘Nobody’s safe out there’: Victims’ families hail MacKay as he signals change to drunk driving laws
EDMONTON — The new federal justice minister says the Conservative government is considering changes to impaired driving legislation in the Criminal Code.
But Peter MacKay, who only took over the portfolio earlier this month, wouldn’t say exactly what is being pondered as he headed into a meeting with crime victims in Edmonton.
"I can tell you I did numerous trials on impaired driving cases, first as a defence lawyer and then prosecuting cases," MacKay said Thursday, recalling his time working as a lawyer in Nova Scotia.
"I recall vividly a judge making a statement in a trial that I was prosecuting to the accused that driving down the road while under the effect of drugs or alcohol is no different than pointing a gun at another human being."
Related
Man’s ‘shocking’ 19 drunk driving convictions prove system fails to stop repeat DUI offenders, MADD says
Ending drunk-driving deaths is in sight, experts say
Mom picking up son charged with drunk driving also charged with drunk driving
.
MacKay said he wanted to meet with more victims of impaired driving before announcing the changes the government is contemplating.
One of the people MacKay met with Thursday was a mother whose 18-year-old son was one of three Alberta men killed in a crash where drunk driving was suspected.
The ministers words were a huge relief for Sheri Arsenault, whose son Bradley Arsenault died along with two friends south of Edmonton on Nov. 26, 2011.
Jonathan Pratt, 28, of Beaumont, Alta., is charged in the case, which is still before the courts.
I believe we have to continue to send that signal of just how serious an incident that is, and the consequences — the consequences that you cause, and the consequences that you have to live with when you put drugs and alcohol in your system and get behind the wheel of a car
.
"Finally somebody in government is maybe going to listen to us," Arsenault said.
Arsenault has become a spokesperson for a group, Families for Justice, which has been collecting names on a petition calling for mandatory minimum sentences for impaired driving causing death. The petition also calls for the Criminal Code to be changed to redefine the offence of impaired driving causing death as vehicular manslaughter.
Last fall, provincial justice ministers asked the federal government to consider increased penalties for impaired driving, particularly crimes involving repeat offenders, serious injury or death.
MacKay said impaired driving laws need to send a strong message because of the consequences involved.
"I believe we have to continue to send that signal of just how serious an incident that is, and the consequences — the consequences that you cause, and the consequences that you have to live with when you put drugs and alcohol in your system and get behind the wheel of a car," MacKay said.
Arsenault was originally supposed to meet with former justice minister Rob Nicholson, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet shuffle earlier this month meant that meeting had to be cancelled.
MacKay apologized to Arsenault on behalf of Nicholson, saying Nicholson had been looking forward to meeting with her.
Arsenault said MacKay’s announcement Thursday was the first she had heard the government was considering changes to the Criminal Code.
With drunk driving being the largest cause of criminal death in Canada by far, it’s a serious concern
.
"He gave me the sense that he’s a regular father with a regular family who sees this crime for what it is," said Arsenault.
Arsenault noted the Harper government has made being tough on crime a motto and has brought in mandatory minimums for drug offences.
She said there should also be mandatory minimums for impaired drivers who kill.
"With drunk driving being the largest cause of criminal death in Canada by far, it’s a serious concern. Nobody’s safe at any time out there."
comment:
Drunk drivers kill more people every year than firearms do. Unfortunately a vast majority of drunk drivers are acquitted on ridiculous technicalities (see the M.Trudeau trial as an example). Politicians need to eliminate loop holes by reigning in the judiciary with the use of the "notwithstanding clause" and with solid legislation.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/07/26/nobodys-safe-out-there-victims-families-hail-mackay-as-he-signals-change-to-drunk-driving-laws/
CANADA: KILLERS- KILLERS -KILLER DRUNK DRIVERS-P.E.I. mulls specialized license plate for convicted drunk drivers
http://nova0000scotia.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/canada-killers-killers-killer-drunk-drivers-p-e-i-mulls-specialized-license-plate-for-convicted-drunk-drivers/
Pg2 Jul9- Hell Yeah- how many lives destroyed by vicious drunk/drugged drivers- how many? How much does it cost $$$$$ Canada?
KILLERS- KILLERS -KILLER DRUNK DRIVERS
P.E.I. mulls specialized license plate for convicted drunk drivers
Posted by Chris Knight in A- Local News, B- Regional News, H- Crime News
http://monctonnews.net/p-e-i-mulls-specialized-license-plate-for-convicted-drunk-drivers/
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M.A.D.D. Canada- Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/maddcanada.ca
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2 all the Graduates and drivers- Pls. Don't Drink/Drug and drive- the mourning after
M.A.D.D. Nova Scotia- M.A.D.D. Canada
NOVA SCOTIA PURE
CANADA: M.A.D.D.- Nova Scotia MADD-Canada MADD- drunk drivers killing us still- Videos tears and prayers- Grads and folks- please don't drink/drug drive- THE MOURNING AFTER
JUST ONE
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QvwMBgGnSvo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvwMBgGnSvo&feature=youtu.be
MADD CANADA- CAPE BRETON REGIONAL POLICE CREATED THIS SAFE GRAD- VIDEO- TEARS AND PRAYERS...TEARS AND PRAYERS- we love our grads- love u so much-pls don`t drink n drive
MADD CANADA- CAPE BRETON REGIONAL POLICE CREATED THIS SAFE GRAD- VIDEO- TEARS AND PRAYERS...TEARS AND PRAYERS- we love our grads- love u so much-pls don`t drink n drive
JUST ONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvwMBgGnSvo&feature=youtu.be
MADD CANADA- CAPE BRETON REGIONAL POLICE CREATED THIS SAFE GRAD- VIDEO- TEARS AND PRAYERS...TEARS AND PRAYERS- we love our grads- love u so much-pls don`t drink n drive
PLEASE DON'T DRINK/DRUG AND DRIVE- WE LOVE U SO MUCH... SO MUCH- U MATTER
U know when MADD- Mom's against Drunk Driving - started up... and there was a lot of us... we even had crosses all along the highway- in 1965 seven of us were hit by a drunk driver - had over 70 surgeries.... it took 3 more drunk accidents to get him off the road...
drunk/drugged driving kills and maims and destroys so many.... this is such a heartbrake and so necessary- IT'S GRADUATION TIME STUDENTS- please don't drive if u drink/drug
JUST ONE
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QvwMBgGnSvo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvwMBgGnSvo
COMMENT:
What an amazing job!! Talk about setting the bar high for everyone else! It's really hard to imagine this video was made by high school kids - it's wonderful to know these are the kind of people who will one day be leading our country!
Published on Jun 19, 2013
Riverview High School's version of Lisa Shaffer's 2006 hit JUST ONE - spreading the word that drinking and driving don't mix
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THE NIGHT BEFORE- AND THE MOURNING AFTER
NOVA SCOTIA- MADD.... is damm madd.... DRUNK DRIVERS WHO STILL DRIVE AND MURDER...
Drunk driver to stay in jail
Man convicted in 2004 crash that killed two people
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter
Michael Gerard Cooper, the man responsible for killing two young people in a drunk driving crash almost nine years ago near River Bourgeois, will remain in prison until his sentence ends next January.
On Jan. 23, 2007, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge sentenced Cooper, now 54, to seven years for two counts of impaired driving causing the deaths of Angela Marie Smits, 19, of Sydney River and her boyfriend, Michael George MacLean, 20, of Albert Bridge. Cooper also received a lifetime driving ban.
Cooper, who pleaded guilty in November 2006, has never been granted parole.
In a recent decision, the Parole Board of Canada — as it has in the past — determined Cooper is too dangerous to release and confirmed an earlier decision that ordered him detained until his sentence ends Jan. 22, 2014.
"The board is satisfied that, if released, you are likely to commit an offence causing the death of or serious harm to another person before the expiration of the sentence you are now serving according to law," the board wrote in a three-page decision.
Cooper’s lack of progress during the past year has been demonstrated by continued rigid thinking that he cannot commit to refraining from impaired driving, the board said.
"Such a stance underscores your high risk to reoffend in a similar manner given your current offences, history of impaired driving and your complete disregard for the consequences of the same, despite being responsible for the untimely deaths of two people," the documents said.
By law, the board is required to review Cooper’s detention order annually. Cooper waived his right to a parole board hearing because he believed the board had already rendered a decision.
Although Cooper does not have a documented history of violence, he has a history of impaired driving and has been assessed as a high risk for reoffending by driving under the influence, the parole board said, referring to a May 2011 initial decision. In February 1988, he was fined $600 for impaired driving.
Cooper, the board has ruled, has taken limited responsibility for his crimes, made threats to his parole officer and admitted to ongoing marijuana use.
"You lacked remorse or empathy for your victims and had no insight into the possible fatal consequences of your actions should you drink and drive," the board said.
"Despite completion of a substance abuse program, you made limited progress and continue to negate a substance abuse problem."
The students were killed instantly when Cooper’s truck crossed the centre line on May 14, 2004, near the River Bourgeois exit on Highway 104, and crashed into their car.
The young couple were heading east for a planned family celebration that weekend, and Cooper was heading west that night to return to his Clevelandarea home after drinking for seven hours at MacBouch Lounge in St. Peter’s, 20 kilometres down the highway.
Tests showed Mr. Cooper’s blood contained three times the legal level of alcohol when he crashed into MacLean’s car at about 11 p.m.
Both vehicles burst into flames. The cremated remains of the young couple were later buried together. Cooper suffered severe burns and a serious head injury.
(sborden@herald.ca)
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