Name: Dana Goudreault
Website:
Referred by: Just Surfed On In
From: Manchester,NH
Time: 1999-09-28 17:09:18
Comments:
To Donette's Mom & Dad,
I am so sorry for what you have endured.
I have read many stories about the senselessness of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, every one of them as infuriating as they are heartwrenching.
Bad choices are made by good people every minute of every day, myself included, and it scares me to no end.
I'm 36 six yrs old, happily married father of three. Although the age of driving is still a handful of years away, I think and preach about drinking and drug abuse to my children often.
I, as a teenager, once drove five friends home from a party,and to this day I cant recall half the trip. It was a distance of over 20 miles on roads with speed limits of 50 mph. It also was through 3 different towns.The part that I remember was that I was driving around 20 mph, had a horrible feeling of no control, begging for someone else to drive,and not being coherent enough to know if I actually asked the question or even hear a response.
I do know that when I did finally awake at my friend David's house, I was instantly horrified as I tried to backtrack and figure out what happened.I walked home and said I would be back later for the car. I walked into my home and looked straight at my parents and cried! I was eightenn years old and since that day have never let myself become drunk ever again. I could win 100 million dollars today and still not feel as lucky as I was that day. I slowly lost contact with my friends over the years, until Sept. 26,1987. I saw David whose house I parents house I had driven to that day. It was close to his birthday and we went to local bar to celebrate. I was surprised to see that he too had eased up on the drinking.We had one beer each and talked for about an hour with our other friend Dan. We shook hands and said that we should get in touch more often. I said I looked forward to it.
One week later, I recieved a call from another friend whom I had'nt seen in quite awhile. I asked how thinwere up north and he wondered how I knew he had moved. I told him I had run into David last week. He said he had bad news. David was dead! He was killed in a fiery car crash that I had read about in the local newspaper but names were withheld. He was a passenger in a small car driven by a person who apparently died of alcohol poisoning at the wheel! He drove head on at over 100 mph into a small car with 2 teenagers coming back from a football pep rally. The 17 yr old girl was killed and her boyfriend crippled for life.
David's blood test showed that he had been drinking too. His older brother had been driving with this guy while looking at constuction sites. David had followed behind in his van. At some point nobody wanted to drive with this guy, but I guess seating was limited so that not everyone could ride in the Van. David, for reasons I will never know, decided to get into the car with his brother's friend and let his brother drive his van.
I can not begin to fathom the mindset of his brother, both then and now.
He saw the car carrying his little brother accellerate and swerve into th oncoming car. This happened in broad daylight at @ 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. He ran to the car which was sitting upright on its rear fender like a rocket about to launch. He tried to open the passenger door as flames started to surround the car. It exploded and sent him flying into a ditch, his face badly burned as I would see at the wake.
What memories can haunt this man, I can't begin to imagine.
Ultimately it was David's fault for loosing his life, and not having the sense to think about what could happen to someone else on the road.
Again, its the ability of good people to make incredibly irresponsible life endangering decisions. I hope that I reach my kids, but ultimately hard decisions brought on by peer pressure and the teenage feeling of wanting to be free will be made by each child.
I urge all parents to talk straight with their children on a level ground. They can make mistakes in everyway and learn from them. Thats life. But don't risk your life while risking someone else's too. No matter what, drinking and driving should be the easiest decision in anyone's life.Just don't do it!! Ever!! Because what you learn from this mistake, you wont like living with.
Sorry for running on. I've never fully let it all out before.
I truly am sorry about your daughter, Donette.
Sincerely,
Dana Goudreault
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