Even though we were following the speed limit, and we were all wearing our seatbelts, we were severely injured. I hit the dash of our newly purchased 1988 Ford Aerostar Minivan with my face, head, and entire right side of my body. My face exploded to the bone under the impact. I was knocked unconscious.

My husband broke the steering wheel with his chest, and twisted and bent the brake pedal while trying to stop. He put his hands through the instrument panel, he was in and out of consciousness. Our four year old and five month old daughters were trapped, hanging upside down by their seat belt and car seat, in the middle seat which had broken loose and flipped upside down. The seat belt severely cut through the skin of our four year old daughter. Our five month old daughter was not injured because of her wonderful Evenflo car seat.

Our six year old son was crushed and trapped by the middle seat. He was sitting in the rear seat, as the middle seat hit him it cut a large gash into his head, and severely bruised his entire body. My son was knocked unconscious.

Three truckers, who had been driving down the state route, saw the crash and stopped to help. They called 911, and then lifted my children out of the wreckage. One of the truckers worked on me and my husband. Another trucker stayed with my children. The third trucker worked on the driver and passenger of the car that hit us. They saved all of our lives, and for that we will be eternally grateful. As far as we know,these three truckers did not leave their names We would like the opportunity to say "Thank You"

We were all taken to a hospital in Lima, Ohio. I had emergency surgery to repair my face. Besides the scar on my face, we all have scars where the seatbelts cut through our skin. I have numerous physical injuries, some that will never heal. I have lost all feeling in the right side of my face, and I have a traumatic brain injury. I have learned that I am considered "disabled" now. I am only twenty-nine years old, and I have a very hard time dealing with the facts of my disability. My memory is very bad now. My memory is like very small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle now. I can find one piece of the puzzle at a time, but I can never seem to put together the entire picture. Dealing with my brain injury is so very hard on me, and on my family.

We have found out that my husband is permanently disabled because he broke his leg in two places and the hospital in Lima, Ohio did not catch it. The doctor at the hospital told my husband that his ankle was sprained. My husband tried to tell him that the pain was too bad for it to be just a sprain, and the swelling was abnormal. The doctor did not want to listen, he was insistent that it was a sprain. He was told to just go home and take it easy, it would get better soon and the swelling would go away. Two months later, the swelling was still very bad and the pain was excruciating. We finally were able to get our insurance company to approve a specialist to see my husband. We learned that there are bone fragments, from his ankle, that are causing even more pain. We learned that there is nothing that can be done now, the bones have already healed incorrectly. We learned that eventually, he will not be able to walk and will be in a wheelchair.

My husband is thirty years old. He has worked hard all of his life. He was a very active man, and now he is told that eventually he will not be able to walk. Can you imagine what that does to a man like him ? He pushes himself now to work, to try to do his old job. His income is the only one we have. We are faced with the very real possibility that he will not be able to keep his job much longer. We have no idea what will happen then.

Since the crash, we have learned that our now five year old daughter has a torn stomach lining from the crash. She has the equivalent of a bleeding ulcer. She will be on medicine for that for the rest of her life. We have also learned that my sons Dyslexia has gotten worse. There is a chance that my son has a brain injury also. He is showing all of the symptoms. We are having him tested.

Our losses due to this accident are immeasurable. Our van was totally destroyed, we have had to buy another, for much more money. We have Michigan No-Fault insurance, which pays for nearly all of the medical costs. I am not the same person, my entire personality has changed. I would give anything to have our old life back. You see, I was the neighborhood mom, a steady school volunteer, and I gave my all to every child I met. Now, children do not understand why I can't talk right, and why I have so many other physical and mental problems. I am not able to do anything that I used to for the children.

I contacted the court system when I got home from the hospital. I wanted to be there when this woman who hit us was prosecuted. I was told that she had already been to court. No one bothered to tell us, so we could make her and the judge see what she had done to us. I was told that she was sentenced to a one hundred and thirty five dollar fine for failure to yield, driving without a license, or insurance. She was not given any jail time. We were told that she admitted to the judge that she had been up all night at a party and was so drunk that she did not see us. She said that it was our fault for being on the road at six thirty a.m. I asked the prosecutor why this woman was not cited for DWI or DUI. The prosecutor said that even though this woman had an open six pack of beer,and the police smelled the alcohol on her, the police thought that she was injured and did not cite her at the scene. The police have a "discretionary right" not to cite. Her admission in court was not prosecutable. The judge ordered her to have her license renewed. The police never bothered to check her blood test at the hospital for alcohol.

We have consulted an attorney, and hired a private investigator. We learned that the driver was not hurt badly at all. We learned that her passenger was injured, but will be fine in time. We also learned that the drunk driver lives in a shack and does not have anything to sue for. The attorney would not take the case. We have been given pictures of the scene, of our van and her car, as well as statements the private investigator obtained from the police, the drunk driver, her passenger, and others. We have pictures of the drunk drivers car, which has an empty six-pack carton of beer in it.

Like so many others, we are left with paying for this womans crime for the rest of our lives. I have learned that our story is not uncommon. This happens every single day, everywhere in the world. I have went from not being able to function at all, to living a full and nearly normal life. I have learned to be a survivor, and to enjoy life as much as possible. Life is so very precious, and can be snatched away in the blink of an eye. I have learned that we can all make a difference. I am a different person now. I am stronger, I am alive, and I am making my life mean something. I have dedicated this new life of mine to raising my children, helping others, and making a difference. It is up to each of us to speak up and raise our voices as one, and stop this from happening again to another innocent family.