Burned alive by a drunk driver
I recently stumbled across this website (note: contains graphic images), and the moving story of Jacqueline Saburido.
> Early on Sunday morning September 19, 1999, Jacqui - then 20
> years old - and four friends were on their way home from a birthday
> party. Reggie Stephey, an 18-year-old high school student, was on
> his way home from drinking beer with some buddies. On a dark road
> on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Reggie’s SUV veered into the
> Oldsmobile carrying Jacqui and the others. Two passengers in the
> car were killed at the scene and two were rescued.
>
> Within minutes, the car caught fire. Jacqui was pinned in the front
> seat on the passenger side. She was burned over 60% of her body;
> no one thought she could survive. But Jacqui lived. Her hands were
> so badly burned that all of her fingers had to be amputated. She lost
> her hair, her ears, her nose, her left eyelid and much of her vision.
> She has had more than 50 operations since the crash and has many
> more to go.
Apparently there’s also a powerpoint presentation circulating the internet regarding this story. Donations can be made here.
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sooooo sad! we watched a video of this in school and i was totally impacted.
What bothers me most about this is that I can’t tell if Reggie has yet taken full responsibility for what he did. He has claimed that he “didn’t know there was a choice.” He also claims that being a drunk driver can “happen” to anybody. In his defense though, I came across some of his commentary in which he bemoaned his victims. I thought a little better of him. Nice to hear him express sympathy for someone other than himself. Nice to hear remorse without excuses, trivializing, or self pity. So many of his comments were “poor me, my life sucks” comments, often leaving his victims out. Those left me very angry. I felt a little better after hearing his unadulterated remorse. When you drink and drive, say you didn’t think anything bad would happen. Say you thought you could get away with it. BUT DON’T SAY YOU DIDN’T KNOW BETTER!!!!!