Power of Choice — Value Life
As wrong humanly choices cause loss of lives on roads, read what Ms. Renee Lord has to say about her personal encounter with the situation in her webinar “Value life” on 32nd National Road Safety Month.
Every year, more than 1.50 lakhs of people lose their lives in our country in road accidents, and many more are debilitated, causing immense economic hardship and emotional trauma to their families. It goes without saying; there is an urgent need to make our roads safer as the loss of lives and limbs cannot be accepted at the price of mobility. There is a need for the society at large to take cognizance of the issue and to join hands to make road safety a social movement.
About the Speaker: Ms. Renee Lord is the Founder of the Meagan Napier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the memory of her daughter & her friend, who were killed by a drunk driver. She has made it her mission in life to share this story with as many people as possible & is deeply passionate about saving lives! You can visit the website at:
An interesting question put forth by Ms. Renee: Why would we want someone from America to educate our audience? To answer that, it has never been about the place (UK, USA, India, or wherever!); the search was for someone who had been impacted by the events that take place on the road. Talking about the USA, the damage is as serious as one death every 15 mins!
Ms. Renee shared her story in an audience of 100–200 people, with the hope they take it to heart & remember this event whenever they’re making choices on roads as drivers or pedestrians.
It was May 11, 2002, a day before Mother’s Day, when Renee’s sister-in-law dropped the news at her place; the loss of one of her twin daughters: Meagan. The moment’s depth is difficult to imagine, but it was possibly a mother’s worst nightmare, definitely not something someone would expect on a Saturday morning as she saw her world crashing.
Her first question: Did she suffer?
Yes, as a young man hit the car driven by Lisa Dickson, Meagan’s friend having both of them in it from behind.
Her second question: Was he drunk?
Yes, alcohol was involved.
As she has been sharing her story since 2002, everything boils down to one single thing: A Choice. A driver’s choice affects everyone who uses that public commodity. As she came to know of the driver’s age, mere 24 years, it really struck her hard because her son was of the same age & the realization dawned upon her that it could just be easily her son making that CHOICE. None of the bodies make the perfect choices!
As Renee prepared for trial in July 2003, it was going to be her second experience in a court, the first being when she was serving in the jury (quite ironic!) Eric was being given 30 years of prison (15 years/death). As Renee relayed what Eric’s choice caused her family, she looked him right into his eyes and said: “I forgive you.” At this very moment, Eric shared how sorry he was for the happening. As Renee was leaving, she wasn’t happy because nobody really wins in a situation like this. The win would only be when Meagan & Lisa would return to this world, which is not happening no matter how many years Eric spends in prison.
As intriguing as it may sound, Renee wanted to remain in touch with Eric for her own psychological benefit & mental health to understand what led him to that other than what was presented in the trial. As the conversation flew, Eric took full responsibility for his actions contrary to the trial where he had been blaming another driver who struck him that day. As Eric was spending his time in prison, it became a burden for Renee, while Eric’s family was constantly approaching courts to get the punishment shortened. As Renee met Eric’s family, she decided to get his punishment restructured to 11 years, which got approved in the ‘Mercy Hearing’ in August 2006.
Having done that, it is important to know the healing power of forgiveness. Forgiving Eric certainly didn’t mean he got away with what he did or betraying those two angels. Renee believes they’re in a better place than this world, and thus, forgiveness will get her rid of hatred, bitterness & anger: the emotions that can reck one’s life & destroy it without moving a bit of the other person. As it’s popularly said:
“If you do not forgive, it is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die!”
Renee had a firm belief that it would be more effective if the audience could hear not only from her as a mother who lost her daughter but also from Eric as an offender, the very cause of the accident. In an attempt, she got in touch with Florida Sheriff’s Association & attended one of their conferences & asked to bring Eric to different schools & events for presentations; and it was her faith that got them interested as well.
April 22, 2010: Eric’s first visit with Renee to the school of Meagan & Lisa in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Since then, they have traveled to 40 out of a total of 67 Counties in Florida until Eric got released on November 26, 2012.
Renee had always had the gut feeling that Eric was from a good family & didn’t do intentionally what he did. She also believes it is expensive for a country to house & feed inmates who caused an accident that already had an economic burden on families & State. This forgiveness of hers had saved all that money as Eric was released in 2012.
After a great deal of thought, Renee came up with the idea to have signs to ‘DRIVE SAFELY’ with human faces on them, as when people are shown a face, they’re being educated on a story which is what she did when she shared her story with us: a huge way to get people to think about what they do. Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director of IIT Roorkee, as a member of the Indian Road Congress, was interested in taking this idea forward to implement.
As obvious it may sound, we cannot live someone’s lives or make choices for them, which makes it important for everyone to understand how valuable they are, people are & life is, how fragile these are, as people make choices they don’t realize can kill or hurt someone badly. People do numerous things while driving, and all that it takes to save a life is a plan ahead. Say you’re driving to a friend’s party which has drinks, the plan ahead needs to be who will drive you back, because it should certainly not be you yourself. Driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, cell-phones, or anything that can take your eyes off-road or impair your ability to drive should be strictly prohibited.
Bottom line of the message: We’re trying to save lives!
Ms. Renee truly believed that the efforts of NSS IIT Roorkee in the Road Safety Week annually were commendable to gather a lot of people together, and that is what it takes: all of us working together in education educating people of the dire consequences of a mere choice. No one wants to be another Eric, being him, making his choices & end up knowing they killed someone & live with that, which detrimental to what one really is.
NSS IIT Roorkee, as a community of young individuals who’ll be using the roads tomorrow, firmly believes in spreading the word.
This article was written by Kavya Saxena under the R-Safety initiative on the occasion of 32nd National Road Safety Month, NSS IIT Roorkee.
