Fatal New Years in Minnesota

[alongman]

One of our local officers was travelling down a major road (his wife accompanied him for the New Years' evening). A DRUNK woman went the wrong way down the road and hit them head-on. The officers wife was killed in the crash. My deepest condolences........... I only wish I could have done more

Please say a prayer for my friend and colleague as his wife is laid to rest. Feel free to say whatever you wish for the sick woman who did this.........I know that my partner and I have.

She was transported and will quite likely survive - what drunk doesn't?! I'm so sick.

I'll post the news videos from the crash as they become available. Check back. Frequent edits will be made to update....

KSTP - Channel 5 News - the vehicle in front is the black sedan (driven by the woman), the squad car is in the back.

 

[Minimor]

I'm so very sorry.

We were just talking here last night about the number of drunk drivers that were likely to be on the roads last night/early this morning. Here numbers were probably quite low--Manitoba has some of the toughest drinking & driving laws you'll find anywhere, but even so, there are always some that think the law doesn't apply to them.

Was the officer injured, and how badly?

It must be hard for you & your colleagues to have to assist and transport the drunk driver when someone else--someone you know--is dead because of her.

 

[alongman]

The officer is injured. I can't share the extent of injuries.

 

[bfogg]

Adam,

How hard it must be to work on someone like this without letting your personal feelings come thru.

God bless you all for doing it though..

One of my brothers was crippled and spent many agonizing years because of a drunk driver. I have a very low tolerance for drunks.

I do hope the officer will be okay and get some counseling for his loss.

For the woman I guess we need to pray for her as well, but it will be very hard.

Why is the drunk so seoldom hurt? I mean it really, why? What is it that they seem to have in common that they are seldom hurt????????

Adam I am sorry you and your friend had to experience this. But again thank you for doing what you do.

Hugs

Bonnie

 

[Marty]

She's a murderer........no less than a cold blooded killer, to get behind the wheel of a 3,000 pound killing machine drunk.........plain as that. She should get murder 1

EVERYONE has to fight for more stiff penaltys. These killers make deals and get off after only a couple of years for what they do.

EVERYONE has to MAKE SOME NOISE and put those drunk drivers DOWN for good

 

[MyBarakah]

I'm So sorry..... My condolences......

That woman NEEDS to pay big time for that! There's NOOOOOOO excuse for that!

On the way back from Christmas my sister and her boyfriend where here on I-80 about 1 1/2 from home and a woman in a VW bug comes flying past them with CO plates..... was not too long later they came upon a major accident...... there was 2 men (brother's from Lincoln, NE) were stoped on the side of the interstate. They had a little travel trailer and were both by the travel trailer. The woman in the VW bug HIT the travel trailer and both men. One man went flying into the median and the other penned under the thier vehicle. Both men had extneseive/severe broken legs.... The woman driving was only stunned from her air bag going off. My sister & boy friend had gotten out of the car to help with the accident..... a few days later on the news it was said the men were both in critical condtion and after a few days they were moved to serious. But the woman was arrested for being under the influence!!!!!!!!!! HOW HORRIBLE! One person's BAD decision makes such life altering changes in other people's lives!

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

Adam, Our condolences to the officers family. Marty, siad it right, this should be murder 1 and nothing short of it, those da*n drunks are fully aware of the law when they chose to start there drinking, plus get behind the wheel. There is no excuse for it and of course the innocent one is the one to pay. I give you credit for doing the job you do, I know it isnt easy, my hubby was with our rescue squad and fire dept for 10 years. Corinne

 

[River1018]

Oh that is very sad,

I didn't know that family etc were allowed to travel with an officer on duty...my step brother was on the canine unit in St. Paul..

My prayers go out to the family.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

How awful.

I don't even want to get started on the whole drunk driving thing because I wouldn't be able to stop once I began. Evil, evil people making hurtful choices for those who chose to act responsibly. If they only killed themselves I wouldn't care, but they don't. They hurt others.

Marty, if I remember my high school D.A.R.E. classes right the reason drunks so often get off without serious injury is because the alcohol slows their body's reactions so they are not tense when they impact another vehicle. This spares them serious internal injuries. Anyone know if that's right or not?

Leia

 

[Charlene]

this is just always ALWAYS so sad. surely, she will be charged with at the very least, vehicular homicide. even at that, the penalty is minimum compared to what this family will have to endure.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Adam,

I'm so sorry for the officer and his family and loved ones.

Please let him know that there are people who care even though we don't know him personally. It's just heartbreaking.

As for the murderer, I agree with Marty. The penalties for this action need to be much stiffer! We were hit once by a drunk driver. We were thankfully not injured other than bruises and my husband broke his foot. But what really ticked me off the most about the whole situation is that everyone, I mean EVERYONE, from insurance companies, law enforcement, lawyers (yeah, we sued his butt) kept referring to it as the "accident." It was no accident!! This jerk made a conscious decision to DRIVE TO A BAR, conscious decision to order drinks, a conscious decision to get back in his truck and DRIVE!

It made me want to

When the officers arrived and had him get out of his truck, empty beer cans rolled out into the street as he opened his door.

He also had a loaded rifle in the truck! Hmmm. Drinking, driving, loaded weapon...what a freakin' loser!!!

We lobbied for him to lose his license and/or go to jail (it was NOT his first drunk driving offense) and we go no where!! The whole system is #$%&ed up!

OK, off my soapbox.

I'll pray for your friend and his family.

 

[Just Us N Texas]

Sooo sorry. We consider New Year's Eve "amateur night", and won't go very far from home because of that. It seems that the amateurs don't drink much any other time of the year, but feel this holiday gives them carte blanche to drink and drive drunk!

 

[twister]

Adam so sorry to hear this, prayers coming for recovery of the officer and condolences for the loss of his wife, no words will wipe away the damage this drunk has done. This is one of the reasons my husband and I decided years ago to not go out on New Years Eve, after a few close calls we do not want to be out there with those drunks. Maybe we should start petitioning for every vehicle to have the technology that they won't start if the driver has been drinking. Bless you for the work that you do, this must have been very hard on you. God Bless

Yvonne

 

[hhpminis]

Please Adam, convey all of our condolences to the officer and his family. Also to those who know and work with him.

I agree that the penalties are not near stiff enough. Those people make a conscience decision to get behind the wheel when they are impaired. It is therefore premeditated and needs to be more than vehicular manslaughter which could be thrown at someone who actually did kill someone in an "accident". This is so different.

I know that this woman will have to live with what she did for the rest of her life, but at least she is living, at least she is now. When my brother was killed, so was the drunk, however my brothers friend that was in the car with him lived. He has never been the same, he was in the car for 2 hours with my dead brother, totally conscience of what was going on. He is the one that has had to live with the nightmare. He was also a good friend of mine. I have heard all the gory, horrible details of his experience, I used to have nightmares, sometimes still do, that I am in the car with him. So for those that think only those injured or killed are the victims, think again. Everytime I hear of things like this, it all comes rushing back and I feel it all again.

 

[nootka]

This is such a terrible plague of humanity, and so avoidable.

We had a pretty busy weekend here, too. Our friend that drives the tow was BUSY, but he loves it that way to take the cars away (impounded) before they are involved in DUII crashes, as you are right, all too often, the innocents are the ones killed/maimed.

Our old horseshoer/farrier's mother was killed near here by a drunk driver....someone who this was his FOURTH offense. He didn't have any remorse, never bothered to check on this lady whose car he knocked off the road and into the slough, not when he was at the scene, nor anytime thereafter. He has no license, never will again, but that does not stop them. There has to be a better answer...

Whenever I hear of someone who's had a drunk-driving incident, I wonder at how lucky they were, we were...as many have experienced, it could be our loved one that paid the price. Poor Officer Lopez is paying, as his wife paid last night.

I am so sorry for their loss....

Liz

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

how awful... please add my condolences to the family!

 

[Magic]

I'm so very sorry, words cannot express how terrible this is, such a terrible, needless loss. My condolences to all of their friends and family.

 

[alongman]

It's interesting, this girl has MySpace - I went there today to read some of the comments. All of her friends saying how tragic it is that SHE is injured..... blah blah blah. Did any of them stop and notice all of her pictures partying and drinking. The true tragedy, IMHO, is that SHE is the one in the hospital!

I was talking to one of my friends yesterday who is a Medical Examiner - she thinks that anyone accused of driving drunk should have to sit in on the autopsy of the person/people that they have killed and then sit through the grief counseling that the family of the victim will endure. Add a healthy dose of having to maintain the gravesites. Jail is an EASY way out - make them live the reality that they caused.