LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Las Vegas ranked as the worst city for drunk driving cases in a national study, according autoinsurance.com.
One of the requirements a person must complete after facing a DUI charge in Nevada is to attend a victim impact class.
STOP DUI organizers told 8 News Now that 749 men, women, and children are injured and killed every day by drunk drivers, nationwide.
It’s one of many lessons they hope will resonate with the students attending the court-ordered class.
Instructor, Sandy Heverly and her family were hit by a drunk driver in 1980.
“The engine dropped and crushed her chest, and she was burning alive,” Heverly recalled. “There you have seven people in a family and just one drinking driver.”
Her mother died from her injuries two years later.
The walls of the STOP DUI classroom are lined with reminders, and photos of people killed in DUI wrecks.
Tony Stull is in a three-year felony DUI program.
“About three years ago my life fell apart,” Stull said he received three DUIs in less than a year. “The fact that I didn’t hurt or kill anyone, something was looking out for me.”
The class is one of the final steps of the program for Stull and he is nearly three years sober.
“People in that class tonight are extremely lucky because they haven’t killed or injured anybody yet,” Heverly added.
Heverly said the class fee of $75 goes to families of DUI victims for any financial help needed, from funerals, to rent and utilities.
Stop DUI classes are held every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month.
