DEDICATION: ALLISON WOMACK
It was a clear beautiful afternoon in Lexington on July 9, 2019 when a 20-year-old young woman’s life was changed forever. Allison Womack, her friend Deandre, and a couple of other friends were driving on heavily travelled Highway 378. Unfortunately, a 64- year-old drunk driver was traveling
westbound on 378 that day who had many previous DUIs that had been pled down, as well as three pending DUIs. The drunk driver turned in front of them and struck Allison’s Honda SUV, flipping it over with his large pickup truck. Allison’s friends fortunately escaped the crash with scrapes and bruises. Allison received a shoulder injury that later required surgery. Allison had just become certified as a yoga instructor, something that she had worked very hard to achieve. The injury to her shoulder completely derailed her ability to work as a yoga instructor after teaching just one class. The drunk driver in this case did not have a driver’s license, insurance, nor assets in his name. On February 24, the drunk driver pled guilty to DUI Third Offense. The plea was a result of another pending DUI charge. Allison bravely faced the offender in court and gave her victims impact statement through tears. The offender was sentenced to three years in prison. However, he later requested a sentencing reconsideration and, due to contracting COVID in prison, a judge decided to let him out and serving just 159 days of that sentence. At a hearing on September 9, 2020, Allison and her mother, Kristen, spoke directly to the drunk driver that upended their lives. “Allison is still my baby and like many parents, my need to protect her becomes more intense in times of trouble. While I had the luxury of knowing what had happened before getting there, my child had just experienced the absolute scariest moment of her life. Did you know that she felt sorry for you when she saw you get out of your truck? She thought you were just old and possibly injured or shook up. It wasn’t until someone told her that you were drunk that she even thought about someone doing something so stupid!” Kristen stated. “My fear is that you are going to kill someone. Every time I think about your attorney’s ridiculous comment about you not being eligible for a license, my blood boils. As if that plays any part in protecting innocent people from you! As if that makes you in any way less dangerous. You had no license when you nearly killed my daughter, you had no insurance when you nearly killed a car load of kids! No one is any safer now than the day you drove into my child.” Allison’s experience speaks well to the issues raised in this report. If the “system” had worked the first, or second, or third or more times, then this crash would have been prevented.
3
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog