Westworld Alberta
Issue link: http://westworldmagazine.ama.ab.ca/i/245179
"He was holding my hand. When we got hit, he squeezed it," she says. "He said 'mom' and he let go. That was the last thing he ever said." The 65-year-old man behind the wheel of the truck was more than five times over the legal blood-alcohol limit. Witt was rushed to the Children's Hospital, where she stayed for three weeks. The joint connecting her hip bone to her tailbone was torn; her bladder punctured, her liver lacerated, her right lung deflated and her left collarbone broken. She spent two months in a wheelchair. In the subsequent years, she was, understandably, frightened of car travel. She managed to get her learner's at 17, but only drove a couple of times, and only on rural highways. "When it came to city driving, or driving around other vehicles, I was really, really uncomfortable. I was paranoid," recalls Witt, sitting in her northeast Calgary home, dressed in black and sporting pink hair, facial piercings and a tattoo of what was once her brother's favourite Lego man on her upper arm. Witt's parents made her take a drivereducation course at age 18, but she used every excuse to put off taking her driver's test. At 19, she moved out. She made an effort to live close to public transit and postponed for several more years. But last fall, her learner's was about to expire. So she decided it was finally time and signed up for an AMA Driver Education course. It wasn't easy at first. She would tense up around traffic and big trucks. Flashing lights from emergency vehicles stirred up memories of the collision. "My priority was to make her confident because she was so nervous behind the wheel," Plan ahead for a safe ride home. Visit ama.ab.ca/DesignatedDrivers. Plus, download the Taxiguy app or program 1-888-TAXigUy Her message into your phone to obviously hits connect with a local home. Once, she cab company. says, she gave a presentation to a group of juvenile offenders in Calgary. After hearing her speak, a 16-year-old who had been caught drinking and driving came up and tearfully told "Drinking and driving is an incredibly self-centred thing to do." says AMA driving instructor Sukhijnder Singh, adding that he would purposely distract her from thoughts of the crash by asking her about her sons and fiancé. With plenty of practice and coaching, she came around. And, on that rainy day in September, she finally passed her road test. "Having my licence is awesome," she says. Now she drives her sons to school every day – and herself to local high schools, where she speaks on behalf of MADD. In the five years Witt has been volunteering, she has spoken to thousands of students. She says she tries not to be preachy – just talks about her brother and the challenges she still faces nine years after the collision, like nerve and muscle damage in her right leg. her he would never do it again. Two years later, she ran into him at a mall. He hugged her and introduced her to his girlfriend with the words: "This is the person who saved my life." "Drinking and driving is an incredibly selfcentred thing to do," says Witt. "There are a bunch of other options." Like taking a taxi or a bus. Or asking a friend for a ride – anything rather than risk depriving the world of someone like Lukas, a perennially happy kid who loved to bike and play with Lego. Family, friends, communities, schools, workplaces, emergency workers and other drivers all feel the ripples when someone chooses to drink and drive. Adds Witt: "It's never just the people in the vehicle who are affected by impaired driving." W Bad Habit 3: iMpAiRed dRiVing # Despite the risks, 1 in 5 and what seems like universal condemnation, Albertans are still drinking and driving. Of the 2012 collisions on Alberta roads: drivers in FATAL crashes drank Source: Alberta Transportation g t n f . driving habits 931 drivers in fatal & injury crashes consumed alcohol prior to the crash 1 in 25 drivers in INJURY crashes drank 78 AS A RESULT people died 427 people sustained major injuries 841 people sustained minor injuries S p r i n g 2 0 14 | W e s t W o r l d a l b e r ta 47 p40-50_WorstDriving.indd 47 14-01-10 3:46 PM