DWI OFFENDERS HEAR STORIES OF TRAGIC RESULTS OF DRUNKEN DRIVING

As prison overcrowding becomes an increasing problem, courts are seeking alternative sentencing measures to rehabilitate offenders while assessing some degree of punishment.

Mandatory attendance of drunk driving offenders at victim impact panels like the one conducted by the Cape Girardeau County Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Community Action Team Thursday night is one such alternative the courts are using.

As part of their sentence, about 15 convicted first- or second-time DWI offenders were made to sit and watch a 15-minute presentation on what victim impact panels were. They then listened to three area residents who have lost loved ones in automobile crashes involving drunk drivers.

The victims used only their first names.

"This is kind of hard for me," said Eleanor. "Sometimes I wish I could remember everything that happened that night, but I'll tell you what I know and what the police officers told me."

Eleanor, her husband and another couple had gone to Sikeston for the evening on Dec. 20, 1988. On the way home the driver of a pickup truck was passing or racing another car, crossed some railroad tracks, went airborne and smashed head-on into the car the four of them were riding in.

Eleanor was the only survivor in the car. She told the group about the four months she spent in the hospital, the "rebuilding" of her badly damaged face, and the painful operations she was forced to endure.

The driver of the truck, who had been drinking, suffered only a broken arm. He is now serving a 14-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

"The other people in the car were killed almost instantly," she said. "Looking back on it now, I wonder how I ever survived."

Toni told the group about the death of her son Sept. 16, 1990. Her son had been riding on the back of a motorcycle operated by an intoxicated man.

The driver struck a parked car, throwing her son more than 100 feet from the scene of the crash. He was less than three blocks from home when the crash occurred.

"We went to see him in the hospital; it didn't look like my son," Toni said. "His head was swollen; there was blood coming out of his nose and mouth."

She told the group that a few days after he died they received the death certificate in the mail.

"I never would have believed that I would ever see the death certificate of any of my children," Toni said. "It was Christmastime, and I could hardly stand the thought of him not being there."

Toni's family bought a headstone for her son's grave for Christmas.

"It was the last gift I ever bought for him," she said.

Finally, Loretta told the group about the death of her 21-year-old daughter, Kathy.

Her daughter was on her way to Stage One The Hair School in Cape Girardeau when she was involved in a crash with a drunken driver.

"My last words to her were, `Be careful,'" Loretta said.

Loretta and her husband happened upon the accident while looking for her daughter after learning she did not show up for school. But it wasn't until they went to the hospital that they were told that their daughter was dead.

The hospital insisted that an autopsy be performed on Kathy, and sent the family to make funeral arrangements. While transporting the body to St. Louis for the autopsy, it was lost.

"We had to wait for them to return her body; we didn't know when we'd be able to bury her," Loretta said. "I didn't know if I would ever get to see her again."

Through tears, Loretta said that Kathy's clothes and belongings all had to be put away.

"Please don't drink and drive," Loretta implored.

Each of the three women brought pictures of their loved ones, the twisted wreckage of the vehicles and personal mementos that help them to remember those who were lost.

The offenders silently passed the photos, accident reports and obituaries around the room, taking time to closely examine them all.

The group hopes to have similar panels every other month.

"Not only do these panels have an impact on the offenders, but they also allow the victims to feel like they've made a difference and have benefited someone else through sharing their experiences," said Sharee Galnore, coordinator of the MADD group.