First Story

Below is the first of many stories to come from family and friends who have been affected by drunk driving. We appreciate Stacey Zellers sharing with us her personal account of being victimized by a drunk driver.

Just before 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 22, 1994, I had just finished Christmas shopping after work for Rick's children. I headed home knowing that Rick would be heading home from work soon too.

I approached the stop sign at the corner of Anderson Road and Bittersweet Road in Granger about a tenth of mile from our subdivision entrance. There were several cars backed up than I normally had to deal with at that intersection stop sign. As I am sitting behind a red pick-up truck and I glance in my rearview mirror to see headlights approaching behind.  A few seconds later I glance again in my mirror and I see the headlights approaching way too fast. I keep saying in my head "oh my God, that car isn't stopping". I put my hands over my face and stiffen my right leg on to the brake pedal as the car slams in to me from behind....

I am stunned. A guy comes to me and asks if I am ok. "I don't really know" I tell him. He checks on the driver behind me and never comes back to my car. I realize at that time that the hood of my car was actually sitting underneath the back end of the truck that was in front of me.

The fireman who came to my car was a calming presence. He needed me to stay put for several minutes while the other responders went to the car behind me. I keep asking him "Is he ok?", "Why did he hit me"? "Is he Diabetic or something"? "Did he pass out"? Finally the fireman says "ma'am, he's drunk".

Rick is on his way home but when he gets to the intersection of Old Cleveland Road and Bittersweet Road there is a policeman preventing people from turning left. Crap, he thought as he had to go several miles around to get in to the back entrance to our neighborhood. As he turns in he sees so many first responder lights further down at Bittersweet & Anderson. It suddenly occurs to him that I should be getting home at the same time and wonders if I have seen the commotion by our neighborhood. He gets to the house, opens the garage door and doesn't see my car. He has an immediate sudden feeling of panic. He speeds over to the accident scene and asks the police officer if there is a blue Lexus involved in the accident, which the officer confirms. He barrels his way past the officer but I had already been taken by the ambulance.

When I got to the emergency room the first faces I see are two of our friends who had scanners and heard the call. They beat the ambulance to the hospital. I had a burn on my forehead with a moderate concussion from hitting the steering wheel, a badly bruised right knee along with torn muscles in my neck and upper back. The hospital wanted to admit me for the night but since the guy who hit me was wheeled in to the emergency room right next to me I tell them I am going home before Rick or his friends kill him.

I wish I had known then, that if I had stayed overnight the police would have charged him with a DUI Causing Injury rather than just a regular DUI (that he could plead down to Reckless Driving).

The drunk guy as it turned out [had] a BAC of .356 (.400 is considered alcohol death). He passed out at the wheel and hit me going approximately 50 mph. He also wasn't wearing a seat belt so he flew in to his windshield. He kept losing consciousness at the scene so they called for the Cardiac Ambulance for him. 

He was driving a very old Crown Victoria which was a big metal tank...not like cars now. And he carried the bare minimum insurance required by Indiana which didn't even cover the cost of my totaled car let alone medical bills. He was convicted of a DUI and thanks to a letter I wrote the judge he had to wear a home monitor cuff for 6 months.

What really impacted me when I saw my car the next day is that I was very lucky. Lucky that a month before the accident I had traded in my Mazda RX7 sports car (with virtually no backseat or trunk) for a Lexus sedan. If the accident had been a month earlier I would have likely died in the accident.

I was someone who had driven drunk and buzzed before in my early 20s. By the time of the accident I already moved out of the "going out drinking" phase. I had already acknowledged that while it was fun at times, it wasn't adding value to my life. However I still feet like the accident was a wake-up call for me to be sure I set a good example for Rick's kids and now my own kids. It's kind of funny that I forget birth dates and other dates but I have never forgotten the date of this accident. Finally, thank God I was wearing my seat belt!! 

Stacey Zellers