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Designated commuter — information technology'south not just an empty phrase.

It'south a calling, a delivery to safety, an act of kindness that can accept a lifesaving affect. At least, that's what 20-year-old Janakae Toinette Sargent believed. That'south why, a few days earlier Thanksgiving in 2006, she was aimlessly driving effectually Lubbock waiting for a political party to end. She had dropped off ii friends earlier. They wanted to drink. She wanted to ensure they made it home safely.

Come across Janakae

Maybe it's a mother's love for her start built-in, simply Kandi Wiley describes her daughter in a steady stream of adjectives and adverbs.

"She was smart. Janakae was beautiful…she was giddy…she was talented, stubborn, outspoken, opinionated, passionate and big-hearted," Kandi said, deliberately and carefully recalling each unique trait. "I know I am biased, but I have heard from other people who said they saw her in the same light. She was ready in her ways. She was strong in her beliefs."

A poet with a beloved of animals, Janakae was in her third year at Texas Tech University where she was studying veterinarian medicine when she wasn't playing in the marching band. She had a goal of playing every musical instrument before graduation.

"And she was well on her way to achieving that goal," her mother laughed.

Janakae wanted to care for animals. She e'er had, even as a little girl.

"Janakae was always toting something home," Kandi said. "She particularly loved dogs, just we had everything from hermit crabs to potbelly pigs and cows."

Why she was on the route

The text bulletin came earlier than Janakae expected. Ane of her friends hit his alcohol limit early. He was ready to go. Janakae'southward other friend planned to stay at the political party, and she would return later for him. While taking her drunk friend home, Janakae couldn't help simply chastise him.

"Yous drank too much too fast. You should have listened to me, and you lot wouldn't be similar this right at present," she told her friend, who afterward shared the conversation with Kandi. She dropped him at his apartment.

He chop-chop realized Janakae was right. He sent a text message reading, "I'thousand distressing."

She never saw the text message.

The crash

Well-nigh the time the bulletin arrived, Janakae was sitting at a red light waiting for her plow to go along. She received a dark-green pointer and inched forward.

But some other driver later confirmed to take a blood booze concentration of .25 blasted through the intersection, ignoring her own cherry light. Police officers estimate she was going 100 miles per hour, perchance more than. She never touched the breaks.

The commuter immediately died. Janakae was immediately transported to a hospital.

At ii:44 a.m., Kandi received a call. She expected it to be her oldest son considering Janakae, who she had spoken with a few hours earlier, had mentioned she might call him to keep her company while she waited for her friends.

Janakae'due south vehicle later on the crash

Instead, a strange vocalization greeted her.

"He told me Janakae was at the hospital and had been in a crash with a fatality. I didn't know if my son was with her or non," Kandi said.

She was four hours away, an eternity of waiting to find out if she would lose ii children that night.

When she arrived in Lubbock, Janakae was on life back up, animate for herself well-nigh fifty% of the time.

"She responded to my bear upon and voice when I spoke to her," Kandi said. "Maybe it was only an involuntary response, simply I find comfort in it."

When she awoke, tests showed Janakae would likely be paralyzed from the waist down. But she never woke up. Iv days later, doctors declared her clinically brain dead.

The twenty-four hours before Thanksgiving, her family unit stood past her grave.

The aftermath

When looking through her daughter'south possessions, Kandi found a poem written by her daughter with an eerie premonition. The verse form imagines Janakae experiencing a boozer driving crash and condign paralyzed as a result. She wrote it seven years before the crash virtually to the day.

"I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving with my family since the crash. The ripple upshot from this 1 person'due south bad decision continue to impact my life," Kandi said. "It messed up so much. Information technology's one of those things where I just wish people would empathise the devastation they tin cause and make better choices."

Now, Kandi speaks at Victim Impact Panels to help drunk driving offenders understand the consequences of their actions. Kandi shares her story at a law academy in Temple to help the new officers empathize the importance of DUI enforcement. This grieving mother speaks to anyone who volition mind.

"Sometimes, I feel discouraged and think no one is listening," she said. "And then, I'll receive a sign that someone heard me and that Janakae's death was non without pregnant."

One outcome of this tragedy is what happened to Janakae's two friends, including the one she argued with earlier the crash.

"The fact that she never saw his message haunts him," Kandi said. "But they are both married now. One has a babe. Thanks to my daughter, they remained condom and accept happy lives today."

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Source: https://www.madd.org/voices-of-victims

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