Candy Lightner Tragedy

Many people experience tragedy in their lives and tragedy can change someone forever. The change could be a positive change or a negative change depending on the choice of the individual. One woman, Candy Lightner, had three tragedies occur in her life that not only changed her and her family and friends forever but also pushed Candy to make a positive change in this great nation. Candy Lightner was born in California on May 30, 1946. Her father was in the U.S. Air Force and her mother worked as a civilian for the military. Candy grew up in California and went to college in Sacramento to become a dental assistant. She married a U.S. Air Force officer Steve Lightner and they had three children, one son, Travis and twin girls, Serena and

Serena survived with minor injuries. But, the drunk driver had minor consequences for his drinking and driving. It was only six years later when a driver impaired by drugs ran over Candy and Steve’s son Travis. Travis was injured severely. He had many broken bones, was in a coma and eventually was left with permanent brain damage. Laws were very weak at the time and the driver received no ticket even though she had no license and was driving impaired. After this tragedy Candy and her husband divorced and she moved to a new town in California where life seemed to be going good for her. But, severe tragedy struck a few years later when the Lightner’s daughter Cari was on her way to a church carnival as she was walking, a drunk driver drove onto the sidewalk, ran over Cari and killed her. The driver drove off and never returned to the accident until later caught by law enforcement. This driver was free on bail from a drunken driving crash which had occurred only two days earlier. In the last four years this was his fifth drunken driving offense. Four days later after Candy realized the driver would probably not receive any jail time for his crime, Candy knew she had to

This organization created changes in an area that was greatly needed. Lightner and her organization have done many other things to make our highways safe from drunk drivers and to educate adults and children on the dangers of alcohol. Such as; The MADD organization worked with Anheuser Busch to encourage them to promote responsible drinking, they promoted making public service videos about drinking and driving, they began a red ribbon program to discourage drinking and driving during the holidays by responsible drinkers tying red ribbons to their car antennas and they also promoted raising the legal measure of