Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

His mom is listed - I'll send her and the family a card.

It is sad, I have done this over a dozen times since Kenneth got hurt... Every time I go to the store I say, maybe I should buy a couple of Sympathy cards so I don't have to come back every time this happens. And then I said, well, maybe if I don't pick up more than one right now that means I won't have to come back... by getting it ahead of time then I felt like I was sealing someone's fate or something. I don't know, I just felt bad doing that -- I keep thinking, one day, I won't have to buy these cards anymore.

Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

Posted by Karen

there's an update on Newsday saying he passed away last night .

I hope that POS (who is a nurse, BTW!!) rots in jail!

Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

Posted by DaniRella

I feel like I am reading the same story over and over again with different players -- drunk driver, their victim, head injury, etc. I mean, I forget how many stories I have read of people being hit in their cars or as pedestrians in the last year -- then, lately, how many driving drunk w/ the child in the car stories. It is INSANE.

The thing that bothers me about Newsday so much is that they rarely follow up down the road - a year or so later, sometimes more - when this POS will be sentenced to serve 30 days and attend a DUI program for hitting this poor kid. I guarantee she will not get anything over a year - if that. Meanwhile, if this was in Nassau they would throw the book at her.

SHAME on the District Attorney's Office in Suffolk - this is the seventh case this year in Suffolk where I have written an email to the office asking for them to charge her as much as they can and they send me a general email back saying there's nothing they can do. The State Laws ARE there now - Kathleen had the Laws where someone is killed made tougher in NYS *and* she had the ones where someone is injured made tougher and is currently working on a harsher sentence for those who are injured seriously.

The charges ARE there - they just don't want to raise them against these drivers and fight in court to make sure they stick like the Nassau ones did for Kenneth. I always say, the guy that hit Kenneth would be out in about a year or so, maybe less, if it was in Suffolk.

I am just SICK of this.

ETA: oh and it is sad because I said to myself, I bet she had priors. This is why the laws for first offenders need to be harsher - just if you get arrested for it - because when they only pay a 400 dollar fine they are SO much more likely to do it again. God only knows if we had punished this woman the first time around or taken her car for good for something of that nature maybe this kid wouldn't be clinging to life right now.

Message edited 8/14/2009 1:15:16 PM.

Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

She will be charged with manslaughter now right? I am not familiar with the laws

Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

Dani, tell us how we can help. I, for one, have no idea who to write to or what to say.

Very nice of you to send sympathy cards.

Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

OMG, that poor boy

Re: Mom driving drunk with a child in the car hits a teen on his bike

This makes me soooooo ANGRY because for years i have been praying for harsher penalties for drunk drivers. I mean radical harsher penalties. This woman needs to be charged with murder. Her prior arrests for DUI should have including years of jail time. Why are the laws so soft?

My heart is broken for that boys family