A Grandfather Lost His Son Yesterday in a Car Crash. He Would Still Be Alive if He Had Used the Device His Father Gifted Him.

A grandfather lost his son yesterday in a car crash. The son was 41. He had three drinks at a family dinner. He would still be alive if he had used the device his father gifted him.

I have been a state trooper for 19 years. I have made over 200 notifications in my career.

Last night I made the worst one.

What I did not tell you in the first paragraph is that the 41 year old man's son was in the passenger seat while the car crashed. The boy was 14 years old. His name was Lucas. He died at the hospital at 2:14 AM.

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My name is Sergeant Brady Wall.

I have been an Illinois state trooper for 19 years. I worked DUI enforcement for the last nine.

I have stood on a hundred porches at 11 PM and waited for someone to open the door and become a different person than they were three minutes earlier.

I have never knocked on a door like the one I knocked on last night.

I knocked on the grandfather's door at 11:14 PM.

His name is Walter. He is 71. Retired contractor. Married to a woman named Linda for 49 years. He had one son named Daniel. He had three grandchildren.

Last night he had two.

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Walter answered the door in pajamas. He knew before I spoke.

Linda came out of the bedroom. I told them both about the crash at the same time. Linda collapsed against the hallway wall.

Walter sat down on the floor next to her. He held her shoulders for two minutes.

Then he stood up.

He looked at me and said: I have to call Rebecca.

Rebecca is his daughter in law. Daniel's wife. Lucas's mother.

She was at home with her two younger children. She had been waiting for Lucas to come home from grandpa's house.

Walter could not say it on the phone. He drove 14 minutes to her house with the news in his chest.

He told her in her kitchen at 11:51 PM.

She walked past him out the front door and started running down the street.

He caught up to her. He held her on the sidewalk for 23 minutes.

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I sat at Walter's kitchen table with him at 4 AM after we came back from the hospital. He told me how the night had unfolded before I knocked on his door.

It had been a regular Sunday at his house.

He had cooked steaks on the grill. Linda had made an apple pie from her mother's recipe. Daniel had driven down from the city with Lucas. Rebecca had stayed home with the younger kids because the seven year old was running a fever.

Eight people at the table.

Daniel had three beers across three hours.

Lucas had a root beer.

Lucas had spent most of the dinner sitting next to his grandfather. He had been telling Walter about a fantasy football trade he was thinking about making. He wanted Walter's advice.

Walter told me at the kitchen table at 5 AM that he had spent 11 minutes giving Lucas advice on the trade.

Walter told me one more thing about the dinner at his kitchen table at 5:30 AM.

He said Lucas had pulled him aside in the kitchen while they were clearing dishes.

He said Lucas had asked him a question Walter had not been able to stop thinking about for the last six hours.

Lucas had said: grandpa, can I ride home with you and grandma tonight.

Walter had said: kid, your dad came down to pick you up. You are riding home with him.

Lucas had said: I know. I just thought maybe you and grandma could drop me off.

Walter had said: your dad will be heading right past our house anyway. He will take you. Why would we drive you in two cars.

Lucas had said: okay.

Lucas had gone back to the dining room. He had sat down next to his father for the rest of dinner.

Walter told me at 5:31 AM that he had watched Lucas sit next to his father and not say another word for the rest of the night.

Daniel kissed Linda on the cheek at 9:32 PM. He picked up his keys. He told Lucas to grab his backpack.

Walter walked them both to the door.

Lucas hugged Walter at the doorway. He said love you grandpa. Walter said love you, kid.

Lucas looked at Walter one more time before he climbed into the passenger seat of Daniel's truck.

Walter said to Daniel in the driveway: you good to drive.

Daniel said: dad, I'm fine. Three beers across three hours.

Walter said: I know. Drive safe.

He waved at Lucas through the window. He went back inside.

He did not say the word SoberSense Pro breathalyzer once.

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Why Walter Bought the Device

In May of last year Walter went to a funeral.

His best friend Bill had buried a grandson. The grandson was 19. Three beers at a fraternity party. Crashed into a guardrail.

Walter sat in the parking lot of the church for 22 minutes after the funeral.

He pulled out his phone. He searched for the device the cops carry. He found the SoberSense Pro Breathalyzer.

He bought four of them in the parking lot of that church.

One for himself. One for Daniel. One for Daniel's truck. One for Lucas, for when Lucas turned 16 in two years.

He took two of them to Daniel's house the following Sunday at Easter.

Walter handed Daniel the two SoberSense Pro Breathalyzers at Easter dinner.

He said: son, I want you to keep one of these in your truck and one in your kitchen drawer.

Daniel said: dad, I have three beers at family dinners. I'm fine.

Walter said: I know. Keep them anyway.

That was the conversation.

Walter did not show Daniel how to use the devices. He did not say I want you to blow into it before you turn the key every time Lucas is in the car. He did not say I bought these because Bill buried his grandson last month.

He said keep them. He dropped the subject because Daniel was 41 and Walter did not want to insult him in front of Rebecca.

What I Learned at the Station

I want to tell you something I learned at the station yesterday afternoon.

The accident reconstruction report came back at 3 PM. I read it before I drove back to Walter's house.

Lucas's right hand was on his father's left forearm at the moment of impact.

The state troopers had to separate them at the scene.

Lucas had reached for his father in the last second.

I have not told Walter what is in the report. I do not know if I will. I do not know if he could hold that information without breaking.

I am telling you because I want you to read this and know what your 14 year old grandson would do in the passenger seat of a truck that is about to crash because his father has been drinking and did not use a device that was three feet from his right hand.

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Walter Today

I went back to Walter's house this afternoon.

The SoberSense Pro from the wreckage was on the kitchen table in front of him. The packaging tape was still on it. Walter had picked it up at the impound lot at 9 AM. He had been sitting with it for six hours.

He looked up at me when I came in.

He said: Rebecca asked me a question at the hospital that I cannot stop thinking about.

I asked him what she had asked.

He said: she asked me if I knew Daniel had been drinking.

He said: I told her yes.

He said: she asked me if I had let him drive.

He said: I told her yes.

He said: she did not say anything else. She walked out of the room.

He said: I do not know if she is going to let me see Mia and Jacob anymore. They are seven and eleven. They are the only grandchildren I have left.

I did not know what to say.

I sat with him at the kitchen table for another 90 minutes.

I drove home at 6 PM.

I am writing this at midnight at my own kitchen table.

I have two sons. The older one is 22. The younger one is 19. Neither of them has children yet.

I drove home from Walter's house tonight and I sat in my younger son's bedroom for 40 minutes watching him sleep. He is 19 years old. He has been my son for 19 years. I could not bring myself to wake him up.

I went to my own bedroom. I could not sleep.

I came down to the kitchen table and I started writing this.

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The Device

The device Walter bought Daniel is the SoberSense Pro Breathalyzer. Same fuel cell sensor I carry in my cruiser. Same number a trooper would read on the side of the road.

It costs $85.

Walter bought four of them in the parking lot of a church 11 weeks ago.

The one he gave Daniel for the truck is in an evidence bag at the state crime lab. The one he gave Daniel for the kitchen drawer was never opened.

The one Walter bought for himself is on his nightstand.

The fourth one is the one he had bought for Lucas. For when Lucas turned 16 in two years.

It is on Walter's nightstand next to the one he uses.

Walter does not know what to do with the fourth one.

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If you are a grandfather reading this, your grandson or your granddaughter has asked you for something you have already said no to.

A ride. A favor. A reason to stay a little longer. Something small. Something that seemed easier to say no to than yes.

Lucas asked Walter for a ride home.

Walter said no.

If your son or your daughter has three beers at a family dinner this Sunday and your grandchild asks you for a ride home, say yes.

Or use the device.

Or both.

Walter wishes he had done either one.

Call your son or your daughter tonight. Tell them you have something for them.