Bullock should have condemned drunken driving

The Boston Globe

April 27, 2008

I've listened to their stories - the painful tales of loss that parents, daughters, husbands, and wives tell. I've looked through thick photo albums they've placed in my hands and at pictures on mantels and walls. I've followed their slouched shoulders down narrow halls, or up a few stairs into bedrooms, where memories live. These rooms are full of intimate things - sweaters hung in closets, banners tacked over beds, books, tapes, magazines, stuffed animals, trophies, a football jacket tossed on a chair, a guitar in its case, a child's flannel pajamas, sneakers in the middle of the floor as if the wearer has just stepped out of them and will be back to claim them sometime soon.

But the wearer will never be back.

They are all dead - the musician, the football player, the high school student, the college student, the toddler, the child, the guy married just a year, the oldest of nine, the only one. All killed by people who were drunk but decided to drive anyway.

Actress Sandra Bullock had a close call last week with a woman who drank too much and then drove. America's sweetheart, who is filming "The Proposal" on Cape Ann, was hit head-on in Gloucester by a driver who blew a 2.0 on an alcohol breath test, which is more than twice the legal limit. Bullock, her husband, and their driver were lucky. They walked away unharmed.

All the news reports stated that Bullock was "gracious" at the crash scene and concerned about the driver who hit her. A sweet story. A happy ending. Just like in the movies.

But it's not always this way.

Chris Naughton was 16 when he was killed by a drunk driver. He was a musician, a member of the National Honor Society, a sailor, a kid who was working at the Walpole Mall for Christmas money. He was his parents' only, driving home from work on Route 27 when his young life ended. He should be 34 now.

Todd Slocum was 22 months old, playing with his baby sitter in his front yard, when a neighbor who was drunk got in his car, backed up, and ran him down. He should be 19.

Lacey Packer was 10, sitting on the back of her father's motorcycle coming home from a Toys for Tots fund-raiser, parked in the breakdown lane in New Hampshire just shy of the Massachusetts border, complying with the law, adjusting her helmet before they crossed the line. When a man driving drunk plowed into her. She died two days later. She would be 29 in May.

David Brace was 29, married just a year, his wife beside him, seat belts on, stopped in the breakdown lane to make a phone call, when a driver with a blood alcohol level of 2.1 slammed into him. He should be 43.

Albert Lester was 31, running a road race. Kristen Hatch was 20 and jogging. Lisa Tamarro, 19, was standing next to her car on a quiet road. Michelle Dartley, 20, and her friend An Trinh, 21, were crossing a street.

Maura Howard, 19, was a passenger in a car slammed from behind by a drunk driver going 100 miles per hour. Talia Emslie, 15, was a passenger in a car driven by a drunk driver. Stephen Danielson, 40, and his son David, 12, were coming home from a soccer game. Heather Woods, 6, a Campfire girl, was delivering cookies on a quiet Sunday morning with her big sister, Erin. Michael Stokes, 16, and his best friend, John Pappalardo, were on their way to work.

Christine Griffiths was 28 when she was killed, the mother of a 16-month-old baby girl. Michaela is 8 now and being raised by her grandparents.

They take her to school, and dancing, and an acting class, and they've been to Disney a few times. It looks good. It looks as if they're OK.

But the mother misses her daughter, and the daughter misses her mother every day of their lives.

I wish Sandra Bullock would stop being gracious and start being outraged. Someone who shouldn't have been driving slammed into a car in which she was riding, and she's lucky she wasn't killed or maimed.

Bullock is a movie star, and when she talks, people listen. If she says that drunk drivers are dangerous, that they kill indiscriminately, that no one is safe, and that they must be stopped, people will hear.

But if she just smiles and continues to say nothing, that says something, too.