Please read link first to understand this rantRed Deer Advocate - Prayers for a family

Red Deer Advocate - Prayers for a family

When is enough enough???  

My brother informed me about this incident in Red Deer on Sunday.  I just now pulled up the Advocate to read what happened to these poor people.  This tragedy just makes me ill.  It was a completely preventable accident.  Are all accidents preventable, yes but some, like this one, are more preventable then others.  How do we get people to start paying attention to the facts.  Drinking and Driving kills!!!! There are so many alternatives to drinking and driving.  You could call a taxi, call a sober friend, arrange for a friend to be the designated driver, be the designated driver, walk, Red Deer even has a program called Driver Take home where some one comes to the bar and drives you home in your vehicle while another person follows.  There are so many safe alternatives so why do people continue to make these idiotic choices??

Responsible choices, being responsible, being a grown up, that's what this comes down to.  I was an active member of SADD when I was younger, then I didn't have a group to belong to and well I became drinking age.  I will admit I didn't always make the right choice, but I tried and I was lucky I never found myself in a situation where I harmed someone else or myself.  I speak to my child about making proper choices, that he should call me for a ride, or call a cab or not drink at all. At his age the not drinking at all is quite possible, it's not that he's too young, as I am aware children his age are drinking and do far worse, but with his family values and the house he is growing up in it's highly unlikely that he would get away with drinking at this point in time.  How do you reach these high school children?  How do you reach this 20 something crowd?

I am so sick about this situation.  Those poor people had 5 children they were caring for, and now those children have lost their parents.  Two of the children were not biologically their children, so what is going to happen to them??  Well most likely they will be moved to a new home, but not only have these two being removed from their biological parents care, they are now being moved from this home, it's very hard on children to have this much instability. I can't understand how this guy just walked away from this accident, why does it always seem to go like that??  Why can't the people who were sober, walk away after being hit by the drunk driver??

I am angry with this Olsen character as well.  He's effectively ruined at least 8 lives.  Two lives he has ended, five children have lost parents and his own life is kaputt.  Do I think jail is a great place for him?? Surprisingly no.  I know he has killed two people and he should pay for that, but by spending time in jail he is not going to be able to do anything productive and it won't bring these people back.  What should he do instead??  I think he should pay a debt to society by having to go out and do talks with children and teens and twenty something people.  He should become a spokesperson for the impact of drinking and driving.  He should have to contribute to a community the way this family was contributing to this community.  Maybe he gets out on day release to do this and the rest of the time he spends time in jail.  Should he be able to walk away from this unscathed?? Never!!!  There just has to be a better solution.

I think society needs to make a change, they need to make a big change!! Here is an idea I am proposing.  I think anyone who gets a DUI or is in an accident from driving drunk should have to take a course.  Much like if you get caught with improper car seats you get a fine but you have the option to take a course instead of paying the fine.  So you take this course on the proper installation of car seats and instead of just paying a stupid fine, you learn how to prevent your children from being hurt AND you learn how not to have the same thing happen again. Why can't DUI's and stuff go through the same thing??  Do they???  I think a big thing for DUI and people causing accidents when they are drunk is to have them do some community service and to go to a course that is geared directly at their offense, not to some AADAC course that is general and could be about drugs or alcohol.  And people who speak in these courses should be people that have caused severe accidents and are paying the highest price for their decisions, as well as the people who have been impacted the most because of someone's decision.  

I am totally going to join a MADD chapter here in town and if one does not exist I am going to start it up. New Goal for 2010 become active in MADD.

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