Give 'Em a Brake
By all accounts, Robert Shannon, 35, of Hammond, Ind., is an all-around great guy. His mother says she raised him to lend a hand to anyone who needed it. A friend says Shannon checks on him regularly. "He does that," Patrick Derkacy said. "He gets my groceries."
But Shannon has a dark side, too: DUIs. His driver's license had been suspended four times in previous cases, which included various plea deals on at least one drunk driving charge, and another where he refused to take a breath test.
On March 16, Shannon was driving on Interstate 80 in Northwestern Indiana. At the same time, Indiana transportation department employees were out filling in potholes.
Road workers Christopher Jenkins and Eugene Pratchett were on the highway talking, when suddenly a car veered into the closed lane where they were working. One second, Jenkins was there. The next second, he was gone, run down by Shannon's car. It was a full-speed hit: a witness says his brake lights didn't even come on before the impact.
"I don't know why I'm not dead," Pratchett said later. "I was standing close enough to him to hold his hand."
Pratchett ran over to where the car was stopped and, sensing the driver was going to speed off, stood in front of it to block the way.
"I said, 'Look what you did,'" Pratchett said. "'You killed him! You killed him!'" Jenkins, a father of two, was 45.
The driver, Pratchett remembers, said "My life is over." -- and then he got out and ran.
But Pratchett then had a problem: he wanted to run after the killer, but the driver had left his car in "Drive". It was now rolling toward the open highway lane, directly in the path of a semi. Pratchett chose to avoid another wreck and jumped in to stop the car. By then, the driver was out of sight.
Police found two beers in Shannon's car -- one open.
After a 21-hour search, Shannon was captured hiding in an alley a couple of miles away. He was trying to call his girlfriend, police say. Police say Shannon admitted he was driving the car, and had been drinking before the crash.
He has been charged with reckless homicide, and failure to stop at a fatal crash. On conviction, Shannon faces 16 years in prison. That could really change Shannon's life, but it's Jenkins' life that's really "over".
In an instant, Shannon went from a no-big-deal I'm-just-a-little-drunk driver to facing 16 years in prison (and a lifetime of knowing what he did) for killing the head of a family. No wonder he can't look at you in the eye. Don't fool yourself, too -- this is why people tell you "Don't drink and drive"!
Sources: Northwest Indiana Times, Chicago Tribune
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Most Recent Comments
Posted by Ken, New York on April 6, 2010:
What I don't understand about stories like this are how does the driver keeps getting his/her license back.
Several years ago, there was a similar story about a drunk driver killing an innocent bystander, and it was discovered that he had something like 50+ previous DUI arrests, and had lost his license more than 50 times. But that also means that he got his license back more than 50 times as well!
Many states have "three strikes and you're out" laws for violent felonies. Why not a similar "3 DUI convictions, and you lose your license permanently" law? (Though I suppose extenuating circumstances could be taken into account, to prevent ZT coming into play.)
Posted by Sabra in CT on June 27, 2010:
I lost a very good friend to a drunk driver. She had never learned to drive, but had stopped by the side of the road to admire a horse in a field. We had met through our love of horses.
I never heard what happened to the driver as she lived in Canada. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough.
It doesn't matter how many times you take a person's license away, as long as others keep enabling a DD, they will continue to drink and drive. The always seem to find a car to drive whether through a purchase or a friend. If laws were made so that there was a 3 day waiting period to buy a car the same way there is to buy a gun, I would hope it would happen less. I also think that people who loan their cars to convicted DD should be held legally accountable. Same goes for people who are in the car and allow a convicted DD to drive.
Driving a car while impaired is so beyond stupid, it's tragic.
Posted by Sean in Canada on July 31, 2010:
When I think about it, the best way to prevent drunk driving is to completely eliminate either alcohol or vehicles. Of course, both of them would go over very badly. And they're both next to impossible.