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...The movie is ending, Mom. You will want to "hit the sack".
I'll just run Neil back home, Mom. And wake you when I get back.
You don't have to worry, Mom, you know that I drive safely.
Dad taught me here on the farm. How to drive responsibly.
....I'm on my way back home, Mom. (why'd the car in front just swerve?)
A CAR CAME IN THIS LANE, MOM! Please, God! This I don't deserve!
....Though I'm still in the car, Mom, I hear the policeman say,
That the other guy was drunk, but I'm the one who had to pay.
I'm lying here dead, Mom. Won't be seeing you anytime soon.
How'd this happen to me, Mom? My dreams burst like a balloon.
Through all the ups and downs, Mom, I have really loved my life...
I planned on having kids, Mom. And being someone's wife.
There's blood all around me, Mom. And all the blood is mine.
I hear the medic say, Mom, that it shouldn't be my "time".
They say the one that hit me, had prior DUI's...
So..he's done this before, Mom. He drinks..but I'm the one who dies.
Why do these people drink, Mom? It can ruin your whole life.
Yet it's not him, it's me, Mom. (The pain's just like a knife.)
Why isn't it the drunk, Mom? I just don't think it's fair
That I'm lying here dead, and he can stand there, smoke, and stare.
If he has DUI's, Mom, and the law he has BROKE,
Why is he allowed to drink? That "right" you should REVOKE.
If they had made him stop, Mom, then he could safely drive.
If drinking wasn't his choice, Mom, I would still be alive.
They're taking me away now. I'm getting very scared.
I just don't understand, Mom. How is it that he fared?
I need this one last answer, Mom, before I say good bye.
I didn't do anything wrong..why am I the one to die?
(Unknown Author and Sharon Snell)
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THAT WEEK
Tiffany had her “first ever” hair perm that week. She'd always kept her hair straight, so I wasn't sure she'd like permed hair. But it turned out looking great .... and she looked beautiful. Lynnette, her sister, never got to see Tiffany's new "look". She had it for such a short time it's now faded from my memory too. (Ironically, forgetting hurts...I want to remember all the good stuff.)
I met Neil for the first time early in the week. I'd come to pick Tiffany up from school, and he came with her to the car so she could introduce us. (I'm betting it was Tiffany's idea and not his. She was great with people .... even her parents.)
Tiffany had spent the week organizing & cleaning her room. It was her sanctuary, a large room with lots of windows facing 3 directions ... and usually a jumble of projects in progress. But Friday it was uncharacteristically spotless and organized, with things boxed up in the closet. It looked like she was planning on leaving.
And she was putting letters and stories (she was a prolific writer) into a 3 ring binder. She wrote about what was going on in her life. She wrote a lot of letters but evidently she didn't mail all of them.
FRIDAY
Laying on her desk was a fictional story of a girl named "Tiffany" talking to a boy named "Ira". Ira and his parents were moving away. In the story, "Tiffany" says to Ira, "What if something happens to you and I don't know about it! ... Or something happens to me and you don't know about it?" She had wrote the story for an English assignment two years earlier. And had it laying out on her desk to put into the binder. I'm told there was an Ira, who she was friends with, who moved away at that time.
Friday Tiffany was scheduled to work at Charlie Wong’s restaurant after school. She loved working there ... loved the people she worked with ... loved having her own money.
Just as Tiffany left for school that day I said I hoped she wouldn't "go out" after work. I asked her if she'd want to have friends come to our house. It’s the first time I'd suggested that. But this week I was anxious about knowing where she was ... and wanted her home.
Tiffany drove my ‘88 Mercury Sable to school that day, as her dad had "confiscated” her pickup to use while his pickup was being painted. Tiffany was wanting to get her own pickup back and mentioned it often....even stopping by the body shop just to chat and check on how things were going. She didn't particularly like driving my car.
After school and working her shift at Charlie Wong’s, Tiffany picked up Neil (who didn’t have a car). They stopped and got two video’s to bring out to the farm to watch with Jacob (Tiffany’s brother) and I. At 11:00 P.M. we sat down to watch the videos. “Powder” was the first one. I watched that one with them. It finished at 1AM ... just as Bob (Tiffany’s dad) got home from work. Being tired, I went to bed with Bob.
Jacob, Tiffany and Neil put on the second movie at 1 A.M.
At about 3A.M., Tiffany stuck her head in our room to tell us she was going to run Neil home and would be right back. Her voice woke me momentarily,...just enough to acknowledge the statement with a "okay".
She took my Mercury Sable to run Neil home.
AT A ROADSIDE BAR IN BIGFORK
Eric, a logger, had left St. Regis to drive home to Bigfork at 3:30 that afternoon, and had been drinking on the way. Arriving in Bigfork at 7:30 that evening, he stopped at a nearby bar. Although already having consumed a lot of alcohol, Eric continued to drink at the bar.
Eric's state of intoxication didn't go unnoticed. During the course of the evening, bar patrons tried to talk him into letting them take him home. The server questioned whether Eric should continue to be served. And yet continued to serve him.
When the bar closed at 2am, Eric (and his pickup) were, in fact, taken home. Those, who took him home, considered keeping the keys to his pickup, .. but Eric assured them he wasn't going anywhere except to bed. So after talking with him a while, they left.
Eric then got into his pickup and headed West on Montana 35.
SATURDAY MORNING
Our farm is 10 miles East of Kalispell...midway between Kalispell and Bigfork.
After Tiffany dropped Neil off she headed back toward home. Just ahead of her on the road, also driving East on Montana 35, was Greg H.
Five miles East of Kalispell there's a big sweeping corner. Coming around that corner Greg H. saw headlights coming toward him. Being on a turn makes it difficult to tell if headlights are on the wrong side of the road. At the last minute Greg realized the vehicle was in his lane and Greg swerved into the ditch, barely avoiding being hit. The other driver, in a pickup, continued on without stopping.
Angry and shaken, Greg came up out of the ditch and turned back West to chase the driver down. The first thing he saw coming out of the curve, was Tiffany’s car sitting sideways in her lane. The pickup that ran him off the road was not in sight.
THE CRASH
Eric had crashed into Tiffany's vehicle head-on, on the driver’s side. His 4 wheel drive (logger’s) pickup was by far the bigger of the two vehicles. And it had a solid reinforced frame grill added to the front of it.
Tiffany was thrown part way through the driver side window, ... her neck broken on impact.
Not taking his foot off the gas, the pickup crushed and pushed the Mercury Sable around sideways as it tried to continue going. One of the pickup’s wheels climbed over and down the driver’s side of the car The front axle of the pickup broke. (Damage to the pickup was limited to the undercarriage and the driver side wheelwell & fender ... hardly showing evidence of being in a head-on crash.)
Although continuing on, the pickup was unable to be steered with the broken axle. Eric continued on down the road until his pickup left the road and parked itself safely out in a field.
Eric got out and lit up a cigarette. Both Eric and his dog (tied in the back of the pickup) were unhurt.
AT THE SCENE
Greg H., the driver who had turned back and discovered Tiffany, went to her car to try to help. Hearing a gurgling noise, (possibly air escaping her lungs), he tried to positioned her head straighter.
Then he saw the approaching headlights from the West. He left Tiffany to try and stop the oncoming car... and ran down the edge of the road, waving his arms to stop the oncoming White Cadalac.
Tiffany’s car, sat sideways in it’s path, her driver’s side toward the oncoming car. With the Sable’s battery knocked out in the crash, there were no lights. (Ironically, in the trunk of the Sable, .... with no time to find or use them, and no one but Tiffany knowing they were there, ..... was a kit I assembled for road emergencies ... including emergency triangles, signs and a revolving red light.)
Eric didn’t have time to get far enough away from Tiffany’s vehicle to warn the driver. The Cadalac's lights picked up Greg. And the driver's attention was diverted in that direction just seconds before he crashed broadside into Tiffany.
That crash would have killed Tiffany too... if it wasn’t for the fact that she was already dead. The Sable now was crumpled from two directions, resembling paper wadded up by an unseen hand.
BEFORE THE HIGHWAY PATROL ARRIVES
After checking on Tiffany and finding no signs of life, the two drivers spotted the pickup out in the field further down the road. They walked down and found Eric standing by his pickup smoking a cigarette. They asked him if he was okay. He told them that he was. Smelling alcohol, they asked him if he’d been drinking. He lied and said no.
People from houses on the hill above the road called 911 as soon as they heard the crash and then came to help. As more people came, Eric walked off, leaving his dog tied in the back of his pickup. Someone called to him, and asked where he was going. He didn’t respond.
When the investigating officers arrived, Eric was nowhere to be found.
FIVE HOURS LATER A BAC of .13
Law enforcement found Eric four and a half hours later. He was taken to the hospital to have blood drawn. Results came back showing a blood alcohol concentration of .13 at the time when it was drawn, 5 hours after the crash. (A high concentration ... after a substantial amount of time.)
Eric was arrested for negligent homicide. And then released on bail to await a court date.
SOME FOOTNOTES
* About BAC Levels: When law enforcement arrived on the scene they asked the driver of the Cadalac if he had been drinking....and he said he'd had two drinks earlier. Blood is drawn from all people involved in a fatality, ... and this second driver’s BAC turned out to be “zero”.... the same as Tiffany’s.
* Overserving - In Montana (and most other states) it's illegal for a licensed establishment to serve an "obviously intoxicated person". And Eric (that night)... was an "already-intoxicated person", by anyone's standards. Would Tiffany still be alive if the bar had "done their job" that night!?! "YES."
* The Smaller Vehicle "Loses" - If Tiffany had been in her pickup that night instead of my car, perhaps the outcome would have been different. (Bob had already gotten home from work, so it was available).
* Seat Belts - Tiffany had made it her mission to impress upon the rest of our family to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS “buckle up”.... just as soon as we got into a car! She was the first one to get buckled up each trip, then she'd “check” on the rest of us and tell any stragglers that they, also, had 'better buckle up.' I can still hear her next line, when someone still failed to act ... "I won't feel sorry for you if we're in an accident."
* The Odds - Tiffany's father works swing shift and has made the 10 mile drive home at 1 and 2 A.M., five days a week for the past 30 years without incident. While Tiffany, not quite 16 yet, drove less than a year on the roads ... at any time of the day. Please don't tell me this was to be expected because she was on the road at that time.
* Staying Over - If only I’d watched the second movie. If I'd been awake I'd not have wanted Neil to leave at that hour. We have lots of room, Neil could have stayed the night. It's just not something either of them would have suggested.
* Guilt Trips - Safety's my big concern and when I'd shopped for my car, airbags were my #1 priority...to begin with. Because of the price difference though (for the year needed), I decided it was beyond my reach ... and resolved my NEXT car would have airbags. But it WASN'T beyond my reach. And the price for NOT getting airbags was WAY BIGGER.
(People may say BAC levels are set too low and you are at risk of going over the BAC level after only two drinks, but it just isn't so....It takes a lot more than two drinks. This second driver had two drinks, and his BAC was “zero” at the time of the accident.)
The investigating officer told us Tiffany's seat belt was in the fully retracted position ... indicating it probably wasn’t on at the time of the crash. It's hard for me to comprehend that she (of all of us) would not have been buckled up. (Tiffany, there's no stragglers now.)
There's also young people I know who live recklessly, & have survived multiple car accidents. Aren't they the ones at risk? (In fact, my e-mail indicates it's more often the INNOCENT who are at risk. The drunk driver will get out and walk away from horrific crashes while sober victims cannot.)
It was MY car that didn't protect Tiffany. The low profile and "nose down" design put Tiffany underneath the other vehicle and made it possible for the pickup to climb over her.
And it was MY request (that she bring a friend home) that ended up taking her out on the roads so late.
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Forward to "Tiffany's Dead"We learn of our loss.
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rsnell@digisys.net.
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