A drunk driver in Grundy County broadsided the car of 27-year-old Amanda Jahn, killing her and her two young children (CBS 2 Chicago). Driver Ann Marie Getz, who has several prior DUI convictions, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and faces felony charges.
Sound familiar? That's often all you hear about the victims of drunk driving accidents, the above tragedy occurring more than a year ago.
Surviving husband and dad Josh Jahn has made it his mission to spread the word about drunk driving, retelling the horrible details from Nov. 6, 2008 to anyone who cares to listen.
Jahn, with the help of an advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, made a video of his family (CBS 2 Chicago)--including family pictures, home movies and footage from the scene of the scene of the accident--to show the human faces behind the statistics. He's shown his video to young people and those convicted of a DUI.
Understandably, the loss is still fresh in his mind and Jahn's home remains a shrine to his slain family, which included children Ryan and Kaitlyn, who were three years old and 11 months old (respectively) when they died.
He told CBS reporter Anne State the details from that evening in heartbreaking detail. His wife was killed instantly but all Jahn knew at first is that she was not in the ambulance that contained his two children.
"I saw Kaitlyn and Ryan in a room. They were side by side in a room and they were getting CPR."
Neither had a pulse after about 20 minutes and they were pronounced dead after Jahn was asked permission to stop the procedure. He held their hands for a little while and said goodbye.
Shortly before his children died, he finally learned that his wife didn't make it.
All Jahn asks people to do, as he told the CBS reporter, is to close their eyes and imagine someone dear to them. Then, he asks, imagine if they were taken away. Sadly, he'll have to live with the absence of his entire family for the rest of his life.
As for Getz, the driver? Well, she'll be in prison for 24 years.
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Getz Pleads Guilty in Jahn Tragedy (Morris Daily Herald)
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Illinois DUI Attorneys (FindLaw)
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