Last month I decried the drinking and driving death of the infant son of Southwest State Basketball Coach Brad Bigler in Pope County in July. One week ago today the state patrol and law enforcement around the state launched a DWI Saturation effort through Labor Day to catch drunk drivers. Alas, one person apparently escaped the dragnet and caused the deaths of 3 people. I attended the arraignment this week for 21-year-old Paul Wickenhauser of Cokato, who now faces 8 felonies for the crash. I have a son who turns 21 in less than a month and pray he doesn't make the same stupid mistakes that I made at his age and that Mr. Wickenhauser apparently made Friday night. Court records say he admitted drinking beer Friday, then getting behind the wheel of his Chevy Silverado, and at 9 p.m edged over the centerline of Highway 12 near Fancy Coats Dog Grooming, and when an oncoming van saw this, tried to veer out of the way and the two collided. The van rolled into the ditch and started on fire. A 68-year-old grandma, Marta Stoffers of Atwater was driving the van. Stoffer's son, Michael Hoffman, decided to go to the Vikings game in Minneapolis with his stepfather, and Marta took her daughter-in-law Michelle and her two grandkids, Julia and Jason, to a movie in Willmar. After the movie, they were on the way home when they collided with Wickenhauser's truck. Marta and Michelle died. Julia was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in the Twin Cities, and her dad was rushing to be with her when he found out she had died. Jason, 5, was rescued from the burning van by a bystander who saved his life. Wickenhauser graduated from Ridgewater College in Willmar this year and was working as a farm chemical applicator for Centra Sota. It's not known why he was heading to Willmar last Friday night, apparently with a bottle of rum and a case of beer in his truck. There were two dozen friends and family members in the courtroom to support him Tuesday. A young lady, maybe a girlfriend, maybe a sister, burst into tears when he walked into the courtroom in his blue jail jumpsuit. I sat amid the family members of the victims, many of them also in tears throughout the hearing. Drinking and driving must end. I hope and pray my kids, ages 20 and 23, have gotten the message. I don't know what I would do if I, as a parent, had to sit through a court trial with a child accused of causing such carnage or being the victim of it.
