Bachus & Schanker, LLC

The Denver Post recently wrote a story about Colorado drunk driving multiple offenders who finally kill someone before they are held accountable for their crimes. One multiple offender was actually picked up for a DUI the day after he was booked and released after he ran a red light and killed a woman.

One of these multiple offenders, Richard Strock, was arrested 18 times for drunken driving, 5 times for hit-and-run charges and served time in prison before he got behind the wheel while intoxicated for the 19th time and killed his ex-wife Phyllis “Patricia” Trujillo Strock.

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Sometimes statistics are interesting…how many hours the average person sleeps in their lifetime, how much peanut butter the average American eats, or how many people drink and drive. Some statistics are horrifying, like the number of times some people have been arrested for driving while intoxicated before they kill someone. That statistic for Richard Strock is 18. Richard Strock has been arrested 18 times for driving drunk before he killed his ex-wife in a drunken driving crash in 2006. In 27 years, Strock has collected an astounding 18 drunken driving arrests and five hit-and-run charges.

The Denver Post recently examined 195 DUI crashes that involved a death since 2005 and found that at least 30 percent of the drunk drivers involved had multiple DUI arrests before they finally killed someone. That’s 58 deaths cased by a repeat offender.

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Drinking and driving…most of us wouldn’t consider driving while drunk. But, most of us have talked on our cell phones while driving. But, do we really appreciate the ramifications of driving and talking on our phones. A recent study by the AAA Foundation, using driving simulators, suggests that drivers talking on their cell phones exhibit the same behaviors as drunk drivers. They weave, they cut off other drivers, they neglect to stop for pedestrians and they ignore stop signs. They also have significantly impaired reaction time. According to the study, drivers talking on their cells phones are more likely to be involved in a rear-end crash than a drunk driver.
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Like the ripples caused by a pebble tossed in a pond, one mistake can continue to cause ripples long after the event.

Just days before he started his junior year this fall at Wheat Ridge High School, Jimmy Stewart made the mistake of taking his dad’s car keys, getting drunk and driving when he crossed the center line on Colfax Avenue and killed Nathan Woods.

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Statistics are an interesting phenomenon—they’re just a bunch of numbers on a sheet of paper. But, sometimes statistics are more than that. They’re someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, other family member, best friend, lover or neighbor.

So, when you consider this report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), think of these statistics as a person, not just a number on a piece of paper.

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On Saturday, August 2nd hundreds assembled at Sloan’s Lake Park in Denver, Colorado to participate in Mother’s Against Drunk Driving’s 3rd Annual Walk Like MADD fund raising event. In spite of the record breaking, triple digit temperatures, spirits were high and the pace was brisk as attorneys and staff of Bachus & Schanker, along with their families (and 6 dogs), joined hundreds of other walkers and volunteers to ultimately raise over $99,000 ($5,000 over their goal of $95,000) for the Denver MADD chapter. These donations are used to support the local community by providing support programs for victims of drunk driving and programs to help prevent drunk driving and underage drinking.

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Working at Bachus & Schanker, I typically find myself on the victim’s side of drunk driving collisions. As we represent plaintiffs in auto collisions (and other personal injury cases), I am well-versed in what happens to drunk defendants, how to set up claims with the various insurance companies, and how to help our clients make their way through the American legal and healthcare systems.

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It was 9pm on a Thursday night - last night to be exact. I watched the end of something on TV I can’t remember and took Clifford out for his nightly walk. It was a nice night, but it had been raining earlier in the day. The roads were still a bit wet, and really - it felt like Seattle more than Denver.

Suddenly, I saw a glow of headlights coming towards me. For no reason other than that there was nothing else to look at while Clifford was taking care of business, I watched the Jeep Liberty. It passed me at first, very slowly. And then it appeared like it was trying to make a U-turn so it could park on the opposite side of the street. Somehow, the Jeep couldn’t make the U-turn. And it turned into a 3-point turn. A very slow and awkward 3-point turn. Now I was curious. Clifford was long done with his romp in the grass, but I felt compelled to keep watching. The car finally appeared ready for parking. A curb space fit for a semi truck was available, but the Jeep didn’t drive into the 18 feet. The Jeep passed the space and then attempted to parallel park as if it was parking in a spot made for a mini cooper in Manhattan.

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In the late hours of March 22, 2007, Jennifer Kois and Jake Brock, both 19 year old Mesa State College students were on their way home from a date when they were rammed in the back of their 2001 Saturn at the speed of 120 mph by Patrick Strawmatt. Jennifer Kois died en route to the hospital and Jake Brock died about an hour after his arrival.

Strawmatt, a 42 year old former Wheatridge police officer, had made an obscene hand gesture and was eluding troopers who tried to pull him over after complaints to 911 about his erratic and aggressive driving on west-bound I-70 in Mesa County, Colorado.

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Good news for the safety of motorists as Govenor Bill Ritter of Colorado signed two DUI bills into law last week.

In 2006, an estimated 17,602 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes–an average of one every 30 minutes. These deaths constitute 41 percent of the 42,642 total traffic fatalities. Of these, an estimated 13,470 involved a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater).

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