WSIL-TV 3 ABC

Top Stories

Last updated 11:43 am CT September 02, 2010.

E-mail Story Print Story

DUI Victims Share Their Stories With Hopes of Saving Others

UNION COUNTY-- Drunk Driving victims talk about how their lives were changed in hopes of saving someone else's. In Union County, if you're caught getting behind the wheel after you've had one too many, listening to the sobering stories becomes part of your punishment.

Two women turned out before a group of seven Monday night to share their stories. Both began and ended the same way: a person chose to drink and get behind the wheel, and now two innocent victims are left with scars that will last a lifetime.

While she tries with pictures, Cindy Johns of Marion will tell you, its difficult to sum up her son's life in an obituary...

"How do you put 18-years of your child's life into a newspaper column, so that people understand what a tremendous loss this is."

As she grasps a collage that she made of her son, Cindy describes the phone call she received from Kegan, the night before he died in a drunk driving incident in August 2004.

"I can still hear his voice saying, 'I love you Mom.' And, if I'd only known that was the last time I'd hear his voice, I wouldn't have let him off the phone."

Francoise Booton, of Creal Springs, joins Cindy as a member of this victim impact panel. Francoise recounts seeing a light right before being hit head on by a drunk driver...

"I still hear that bomb that goes off, you know."

While Francoise was hit in 2000, she continues to recover and to this day suffers from injuries she received.

"I've got 2 plates in this one, this one was fractured..."

And more plates and fused bone fragments than one person would like to mention.

Francoise and Cindy both say, while painful, they want to share their stories in the hopes they may change the future.

"I can't change my situation, but hopefully, I can change yours," explains Cindy. "Hopefully you'll look at this as your second chance. My son didn't get one."

"I just tell them, 'What if its your Momma sitting up there,'" Francoise says, "And you're in a coffin."

Whether or not the panel is offered to DUI offenders is on a county by county basis. In Union County, its part of a plea deal offered to first offenders. The state's attorney there says he invited the panelists to participate in hopes of deterring future offenses.

By: Rachel Gartner
rgartner@wsiltv.com

<< Back to Previous Page