The 22-year-old uninsured motorist drove in the turn lane, passing a stopped car which was letting pedestrians cross the street in front of the Presley Show on April 26, 2004, and striking both of my grandparents, killing my grandfather. The motorist’s automobile insurance had been cancelled earlier in the year for nonpayment.
On March 15, the man was convicted of two counts of careless driving. And on March 29, two days ago, the judge sentenced this man to only one year in jail for causing my grandfather’s death followed by two years’ probation for my grandmother’s injuries. To make matters worse, in Missouri this individual only has to serve 85 percent of the sentenced jail time. And to top it all off, the driver even now has never acknowledged having any remorse for causing the death of my grandfather.
This is an outrage. It is an outrage that the City of Branson doesn’t value the lives of the tourists it attracts. It is an outrage that in over four miles of the main strip there are no crosswalks, not even at the four stoplights. It is an outrage that the attorneys in the prosecutor’s office don’t return phone calls (not even to the attorney in charge of my Grandmother’s insurance claim), and don’t charge people with all counts of their crime. Why not tack on an aggravated assault or a driving without insurance charge to the two charges of careless and imprudent driving? This driver KILLED a person.
Not only has this driver caused injustice to my family, but the City of Branson’s legal system has as well. When our family asked the prosecutor who tried the case about charging the driver for manslaughter or driving without insurance, we were told that the driver would not be convicted in Bransonand having a trial that did not result in a guilty verdict was a waste of money. We were told that a woman ran a stop sign a few years before, killing two people, and was only sentenced to 17 days in jail! Do the citizens of Branson realize the reputation they have as part of Taney County? Do you realize that you can run someone down, you can kill a pedestrian or two, and just get a slap on the hand?
My grandfather deserved to live a longer life, and he deserved justice. He did not deserve to be struck full force by a car as he walked over to his favorite show on the strip. How he suffered – back broken in three places, knees broken, legs, feet, hand. A massive heart-attack at the scene. Internal bleeding. He required 16 pints of blood and suffered for 16 days in neuro-trauma ICU in Springfield. And his senseless death was caused by a person who is accustomed to Branson’s everyday traffic.
How many pedestrian deaths must occur for the City of Branson to take some action to make the strip a safer place? Even one death is unacceptable in my opinion. Why is it that in Branson any accident involving a pedestrian isn’t an automatic aggravated assault charge like it is in Osage Beach, Mo.? Why does a city such as Branson, which has built itself up from the millions of dollars tourists spend in the town every year, not protect the lives of those who walk up and down the strip, protect them from people like this Branson-resident driver? The only answer that I can see is that Branson protects its own and the city coffers at the cost of every tourists’ safety.
The City of Branson needs to install crosswalks immediately; every large tourist city has them like Gatlinburg, Tenn., Gulf Shores, Ala., and Destin, Fla. Why not Branson? One tourist’s or resident’s life should be worth more than the cost of painting white lines on the street or installing a crossing light. Any lives saved would be worth the extra time it would take for cars to travel through the strip. Branson could also immediately require all shows to pay for crossing guards one hour before and one hour after each show. Those shows bring in millions of dollars; how little it would cost to pay someone to control traffic at show time.
The medical bills for my grandparents were over $200,000, and that doesn’t include the monetary value of what my grandfather’s remaining years would have been worth to my family. One person’s life is worth whatever it would cost the City of Branson to give pedestrians a safe way to cross the street.
Branson for decades has ignored the huge pedestrian problem its popularity has created. Shame on you, Branson.. (Stacy Rutter, Montgomery, AL)
