Intoxicated fatalities on the rise in Oklahoma, one Tulsan turned her tragedy into a mission – 102.3 KRMG

TULSA, Okla. — Liz Gifford remembers elements of the night time when her son was killed by a drunk driver.

“This has been a life-altering event for all of them. For every single one of them, their lives were changed forever,” Gifford mentioned.

Her son Greg took a highway journey to a water park in Oklahoma City with three of his mates to rejoice one of them, who was transferring away.

“They were all athletes. They were all 4.0 [students]. They were all on the Honor Roll. They were good kids, every single one of them,” she mentioned.

They had been hit by a drunk driver, who was additionally rushing and had a blood alcohol degree of .26. He was a repeat offender.

Her son Greg was thrown from the automobile, hit some building gear and died at the scene.

He was solely 16 years outdated. He had goals.

“My son had his goals set at 16 years-old and knew exactly what he wanted to do,” Gifford mentioned.

He wished to go into the army and finally regulation enforcement. The numbers of fatalities have risen sharply over the final three years. That’s in line with the from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) is most involved about unrestrained occupant fatalities intoxicated-related fatalities and speed-related fatalities.

Eric Foster is a trooper for the OHP.

“When people think DUI, they think, ‘Well, you shouldn’t drink and drive and that’s kind of the old phrase that we use – drink and drive,” Foster mentioned, “But, we don’t say that anymore. It’s ‘intoxicated’ because, very often, it’s [intoxicated] on medications or THC or something like that. We’re seeing that way more often than even alcohol anymore.”

In truth, alcohol-related fatalities had been down by 4 to 195 in 2021 from 199 in 2020.

But drug-related fatalities are up by 11 for the similar time interval and people fatalities went up from 245 to 288 between 2019 and 2020.

Gifford now heads up the Oklahoma Victim Impact Panel, the place DUI offenders take a court-ordered class to take heed to victims’ tales of how a drunk driver took their family members’ lives.

Some of these offenders are there simply to take the required class however some are modified.

“I have received either phone calls or voicemails or message thanking me for whatever story they heard that particular night,” Gifford mentioned. Sometimes, it’s Gifford’s story that they hear and it’s therapeutic for her.

Gifford misplaced her son in 1997 however she mentioned she sees a few of the similar tales occurring at the moment with repeat offenders getting behind the wheel intoxicated.

She mentioned if she will be able to simply change one of them from doing that once more, she has carried out her job.

©2022 Cox Media Group