Last year on Dec. 30 a driver of a truck went the wrong way on Interstate-280 near Toledo Ohio. As he came around a curve he encountered a minivan with eight people in it.
Five people in the minivan were killed.
The man, Michael Gagnon, 24, is from Adrian Michigan. He was sentenced today to 43 years in prison.
Lucas County, Ohio, Common Pleas Judge Linda Jennings sentenced Gagnon on five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of aggravated vehicular assault. He had pleaded no contest to the charges on May 10.
According to authorities Gagnon's blood-alcahol level was more than double the legal limit and he also had marijuana in his system.
As
I reported in Jan. killed was a mother from Maryland and four children who were returning from a Christmas trip in Michigan.
As reported by detnews.com before Jennings issued the sentence she addressed Gagnon,
"Mr. Gagnon, you are the most dangerous person. You have a drinking problem and don't even know it. When you drink and drive it only takes a second to wipe a family from the earth and that's what you have done."
As Gagnon read from a handwritten statement he said,
"In my mind and spirit, I will be serving a life sentence for the pain I've caused."
He had driven about four miles going in the wrong direction and barely missing several other cars before his truck hit the minivan. In the minivan were Danny Griffin, who survived the crash, his wife Bethany, and three of her daughters and Danny's daughter were killed in the crash. Also surviving were Sidney Griffin, and Beu Burkman.
As the two drivers attempted to avoid each other the truck slammed into the side of the minivan and ripped open the one side of it.
Griffin said his life will never be the same he knows it is not over but a large part of it is gone.
He said he can never come home again to a smiling wife and the children.
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Drunk driver receives prison sentence of 43 years for crash that killed five people
