Heartbreaking: Dad Wakes Up Paralyzed in Hospital To Learn 3 Daughters Were Killed by Drunk Driver
Time and time again, people have rallied to find different ways to try to stop drunk driving. It’s such a selfish, careless act to drive when you’re under the influence of alcohol, and yet people still routinely drive when they have no business doing so.
The worst part is the accidents that result often take the lives of those who are just minding their own business and happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One family from Mountain Home, Idaho, recently experienced a devastating accident as a result of a high-speed collision caused by a drunk driver.
Somchai Lurak and his fiancée Emma Weigand were stopped at a red light on Aug. 10 at 1:20 a.m. when a drunk driver ran into the back of their small car with his pickup truck.
Weigand, who was sitting in the front next to Lurak, ended up with a broken arm. Lurak woke up in the hospital a quadriplegic — but that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Lurak’s three young daughters, who were sitting in the back seat, had all been killed. Six-year-old Aneena, 5-year-old Kya and 3-year-old Drayka were all taken because of one man’s selfishness and poor judgment.
It was up to Lurak’s family to tell him the horrible news. His brother, Anthony Smock, wrote a Facebook post on Aug. 11 about the difficult task.
“So now my family and I will have to tell my brother when he is less Sedated that his beautiful daughters are dead,” he wrote. “They will be removing the breathing tube from his throat today at which time we will be telling him the unhappy news. The drunk driver was arrested and is facing 3 counts of vehicular man slaughter.”
“To everyone everywhere,” he wrote. “Im begging you. Never ever drink and drive. It’s selfish and stupid and can destroy people’s lives and family’s forever.”
“Please keep my brother and Emma in your thoughts, they have lost everything. My family has lost three pieces of our hearts.
“My three beautiful baby nieces. I will always love. I will always miss forever the wonderful people I will never get to see you become,” he concluded.
Lurak’s sister, Amanda, has since started a GoFundMe campaign to help with the multitude of costs the family is currently facing.
“First my family would like to thank every single person, business and organizations who has helped our family,” she wrote in an update from Sept. 6.
“My brother, in his words, is doing the best he can right now,” she continued. “He is as of right now, classified as a Incomplete Quadriplegic, the accident affected his hands, his neck, back core muscles and everything from the waist down. He has full feeling just no movement in those areas.”
According to KTVB, the drunk driver failed a sobriety test. He also admitted that he had been to several bars before getting behind the wheel, and he claimed that he didn’t see the car stopped at the light.
“If I was perfectly alert, I would have seen some resemblance of a silhouette of a car there, and I didn’t. I did not see that,” the 46-year-old drunk driver said, according to documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman.
While all the evidence and the man’s own words paint the scene pretty clearly, he still pleaded “not guilty” to two counts of aggravated DUI and three counts of vehicular manslaughter. He is currently being held on $400,000 bail at Blaine County Jail.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
