To the Editor:

A friend of mine was recently hit by a drunk driver near the reservation in between Massena and Malone on route 37, and this driver hit three other vehicles before he totaled my friend’s car and nearly put her over the guardrail.

The jaws of life had to be used and she nearly died. She had to go to Burlington, Vt. for a few weeks and then to a nursing home outside of the county away from her boyfriend and family.

She had eight broken bones her right femur, her back, both legs and a few others and is only 52 and a single mom to three and a grandmother too.

She cannot work and is helpless in a nursing home. The drunk driver left the scene in his car. Another drunk driving accident just happened recently near Gouverneur and Ogdensburg.

It is ridiculous that these drivers get away with nearly murdering my friend and others and escape justice.

People like this who don’t care enough to get someone else to drive them around or get treatment for their alcoholism in the first place and then go on to rob innocent people of their futures should be held accountable in the strictest fashion for what they have done.

My friend is not going to enjoy possibly spending her life in a wheelchair and not being able to work for the rest of her life when her family needs her.

No one should be able to drive drunk, their licenses should be permanently revoked, and the drunk driver who nearly killed my friend should have his assets confiscated and given to her family so she doesn’t have to worry that she cannot buy her family graduation presents, while she sits in a hospital bed and nursing home.

She is a good woman who has helped her community in many ways by volunteering and just caring about the many people she knows.

The driver should be locked up for as long as the law allows. He went to court recently and my friend could not even be there to testify about it or talk to the judge because she is helpless in a nursing home.

He deserves charge of attempted murder or the equivalent and should get it. If he doesn’t get a severe enough sentence and others like him keep doing the same things then maybe the laws should be changed to favor forced treatment for alcoholism and criminally negligent behavior and enough time locked up until they get the point that this was a very cruel thing to do.

If you want to see the laws changed please contact your legislators on the internet. Their contact information is available at http://www.nysenate.gov/ and http://assembly.state.ny.us/

Please let justice be served.

Mary Weldon

Massena