Memory of boozer-driving blow gives Sims family crusade, direction

Memory+of+drunk-driving+accident+gives+Sims+family+cause%2C+direction

February 11, 2013

By Michelle Pitcher
Editor-in-Primary

RachelBush_DrunkDriving_Feb_0009It was Christmas night 1999 and a crowd had gathered on Chugalug Line Road around a fiery crash. 2 were dead, and one family would be changed forever.

Students are told from the time they are able to drive most the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. They are told non to drive drunk, not to ride with a drunkard driver and never to let someone they know get backside the wheel afterwards consuming alcohol. One Coppell family unit learned firsthand the full extent of the effects of drinking and driving.

The Sims family unit was driving home from Arlington after Christmas dinner with family. Three-year-sometime Elizabeth sat in her car seat singing along to the worship CD that was playing through the speakers. Her xiii-month-onetime brother, Nathan, sat next to her in the backseat in his rear-facing car seat. The weather was nice as their male parent, Jerry, collection downwards Belt Line Road. They were about a mile abroad from home. The kids' mother, Sara, who was sitting in the rider seat, saw headlights in the distance.

As the family unit drove home that night in their Ford Expedition, a 19-yr-old Coppell High School graduate driving a Contrivance Neon was headed in the other direction down the two-lane road. He and his 21-year-one-time female passenger were both under the influence of booze. Equally the Neon veered into the incorrect lane, the 2 cars collided. The drunkard driver and his rider were both killed.

"The very first thing I did was put my hand over to run across if Sara was OK, and I felt the cleaved [femur]," Jerry Sims said. "I knew right and so that information technology was bad. The kids were screaming in the backseat, and I was torn."

Well-nigh a one-half dozen cars stopped to offer help, according to Jerry Sims. One of the drivers who stopped was a male nurse, and he took Sara out of the machine and checked for injuries. Jerry then took the kids abroad from the scene. As he ran upwards the road with Elizabeth in his arms, a woman called out and said she would await after her. He entrusted this woman with his girl and went back to the car to try to effigy out what exactly was going on.

"I went back 15 minutes after, and Elizabeth was playing with a puppy and laughing," Jerry Sims said. "None of these were people that we knew or e'er met again. There were a lot of miracles that dark."

Elizabeth and Nathan were taken to Children'south Medical Center in Dallas to have their bumps and bruises looked at, and Sara Sims, who diameter the brunt of the trauma, went to the adjacent Parkland Medical Center. She sustained v broken bones: a cleaved femur, which required two surgeries, iii broken ribs and a broken hand.

Sara Sims' parents, Clyde and Betty Reed, as well as their son Craig Reed, who is a priest, went to meet the family at the infirmary. Once there, Clyde and Craig went to be with the kids, while Betty went to care for her daughter.

"Elizabeth was kind of quiet and big-eyed," Clyde Reed said. "She sat on my lap and just kind of clung to me for about an hour. It was obvious that at that place was something going on in her mind."

After Sara Sims stabilized, the kids' grandparents took them dorsum to their home, where they stayed until their mother was released from the hospital. Clyde and Betty did non realize the accident had involved a drunk driver until they read almost it in the newspaper.

"The way information technology was written up in the paper almost made information technology seem like Jerry was at fault, and that was upsetting," Betty said.

As the grit from the crash began to settle, the Sims family was saddled with growing debt, medical issues and the emotional stress of being involved in an accident that led to two fatalities. Despite these struggles, the family decided not to hire an chaser to deal with the lengthy legal process alee.

"Nosotros thought that they had suffered enough," Jerry Sims said. "Everyone involved had insurance, so we figured we would let the insurance accept intendance of it and not get an attorney involved."

A year and a half after the accident, before the statute of limitations was up, the Sims family decided to contact the families' insurance companies, seeking monetary assistance afterwards Sara Sims' second surgery. After being met with hostility and negligence from these companies, Jerry Sims decided to rent an chaser, a decision that extended the legal procedure for more than than a year.

"They were treated, in my stance, rather shabbily by the insurance companies," Clyde said. "There was a lot more sympathy and credit given to the two people who died than the Sims family, which was picking up all the pieces because of the accident."

Once the legal matters were settled, Jerry and Sara Sims were left to deal with the emotional effects the accident had on their family. After a long menses of deliberation, they decided not to contact the families of the two people who died in the accident.

"We talked well-nigh information technology a lot, especially when we wound up having to go an chaser involved," Jerry Sims said. "Nosotros never got the chance. Our attorneys told united states of america not to contact them, and our families told us not to contact them."

Elizabeth, who is now a junior, was having difficulty coping with the sights she witnessed afterwards the accident. For several years afterward the crash, she would not allow her parents light fires or burn candles considering the retentivity of the blazing machine was still as well vivid.

"When I was little, I remembered a lot more than based on what my parents take told me," Elizabeth said. "But now all I really remember is the fire, and information technology's kind of a fuzzy image. Fortunately a lot of the more graphic details have been blocked from my memory now."

Jerry and Sara Sims decided non to suppress whatsoever of their thoughts or feelings about the accident. They wanted to talk it through with Elizabeth before whatever long-term emotional damage could begin to have root.

"A advisor came to talk [me and my brother] through and meet where nosotros were," Elizabeth said. "It was nigh a yr after the blow had happened. My parents talked it through with me to the best of their ability. Since then, I've asked questions and kind of figured out what went on at the time."

Even with the counseling and a trip to a therapist to work out her trust issues, Elizabeth believes the blow had a lasting effect on her personality.

"I've always been an independent person, and I think a lot of that is because I had to accept care of myself during that time," Elizabeth said.

As Sara Sims recovered, she was forced to use a walker for several months due to her cleaved femur. Nathan, who was merely learning to walk at the time, would hold on to his mother's walker and walk alongside her. Aside from helping her son learn to walk, she was unable to practise much to care for her children.

"Sara could not take care of her 1-year-quondam who still needed his diapers inverse and needed to be hugged and picked up and loved by mom, but she couldn't practise it," Betty said.

With fourth dimension, Sara Sims recovered and was once again able to care for her children. She even went on to run three marathons after the rod was taken out of her leg.

"My legs could accept very easily been crushed," Sara Sims said. "I healed very apace. I was given the adventure to walk and run, so I took information technology."

The tragedy, Jerry Sims believes, centered them as a family and gave them more than perspective.

"We were blowing and going at the time," Jerry Sims said. "I was very focused on my career. We were merely kind of doing the Coppell thing, trying to overachieve. It reminded us of what was important."

As the Sims family unit healed with time, the story of their pain grew more and more pertinent.

"It's a teachable moment," Sara Sims said. "Y'all don't ever desire to be in a situation where yous have caused something similar that. It'south given us a lot of opportunities to teach our kids how to be better drivers. We try to teach other kids too when nosotros have the opportunity to speak to a youth group or to students."

Coppell High School has historically been vigilant in its efforts to discourage students from drinking and driving. Every two years, the junior and senior classes put on the Shattered Dreams program, which reinforces the idea that tragedy can happen to anyone at any fourth dimension. For the Sims family, all the same, the reminder to not drive under the influence comes more oftentimes than every other year.

"There'south really non a calendar week, or even a day, that goes by when you don't think of it in some aspect," Sara Sims said. "I'll be driving through town and encounter the cantankerous and wreaths that hang on the fence where the accident happens, and information technology's a constant reminder."

It is non enough for students to make wise decisions about their own power to drive safely; the Sims family discovered immediate that remaining aware of the possibility of boozer drivers being on the route is just every bit important, as anyone can be affected at any fourth dimension.

"Information technology's amazing how rapidly things tin change," Sara Sims said.

A family unit of four on the manner dwelling house from a holiday dinner tin be disrupted forever. 2 young lives tin be lost because of ane poor decision. Spreading sensation of the dangers of drinking and driving, it seems, must exist a constant pursuit.

"They endeavor to tell you that it'south done and over with, just something similar that is never done and over with," Sara Sims said. "Information technology's something yous alive with for the rest of your life."