Victim warns about distracted driving
She recorded a short audition tape to be considered as a TED Talks speaker. It begins with an introduction:
“Hi, my name is Kerry Houlihan. And I used to be an active mother and a half-marathon runner, a triathlete and soccer player — spring, fall and summer — and a volleyball player, and I would organize teams and now …”
You almost miss the words “used to be” because of her cheery tone. But they are the most important words.
Because she is none of those things anymore.
Because on the afternoon of Feb. 9, 2017, she went for a walk with her dog and was struck by a car from behind, the 2004 Toyota swerving out of its lane, over the curb, onto the sidewalk at Comanche near Inca NE, dragging her several feet before she rolled free and was hit a second time.
The dog was OK; Houlihan was not.
The crash splayed open her abdomen, tore off her left leg below the knee. It fractured her right leg, jaw, shoulder, left arm and two vertebra. It left her with a traumatic brain injury.
It spared only the movement above her neck and her right thumb.
You’ve read about Houlihan in my column before — how she has struggled to accept that life as she knew it is forever gone through no fault of her own; how Marian Kelly Cobbett, the woman accused of striking her while texting, initially walked away free until the District Attorney’s Office was made aware of Houlihan’s story, thanks in no small part to you readers.
Houlihan has waited for her day in court, when she planned to confront Cobbett about texting and taking away her way of life.
That, she said, was at least something to live for.
Cobbett, a 25-year-old Albuquerque woman with a history of speeding and careless driving citations, was scheduled for trial in November on a charge of great bodily injury by vehicle/reckless driving, a third-degree felony punishable by up to three years in prison.
But last week, Cobbett pleaded guilty instead in exchange for the charge being reduced to careless driving, a misdemeanor. Houlihan wasn’t there. “I’m just really bummed,” she told me. “This isn’t fair.”
A spokesman with the District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors met with Houlihan at her house the day before the plea to explain that the state could not prove Cobbett was texting — despite two witnesses who said she was.
Cellphone records show that Cobbett had not used her phone to call or text for seven minutes before the crash, spokesman Michael Patrick said. Without that evidence and no proof that Cobbett was speeding, the case did not rise to the standards of reckless driving.
“She was not happy about the felony becoming a misdemeanor but understood about the need to obtain a conviction,” Patrick said.
Mark Keller, the attorney representing Cobbett, said that his client had been on the phone previously but that she had parked to take the call and was no longer on the phone when she resumed driving. At the time of the crash, Keller said she had been “playing with her radio” — which is careless but not reckless.
“There is a wide bridge between careless driving and reckless driving, and for good reason,” Keller said in an email. “The law punishes the act as well as intent. An intentional and reckless disregard for the safety of others should be more severely punished. … Yes, Marian Cobbett was no doubt careless in her driving, yet it is also true, by the evidence presented, that Marian had no intent, no reckless disregard by her driving behavior to harm others on the road.”
Which is not to say that Cobbett is not remorseful.
“She feels horrible about what happened to Mrs. Houlihan and thinks about it every day,” he said. “If she could trade places with Mrs. Houlihan, she would in a heartbeat.”
No agreement has been made as to Cobbett’s sentencing, Patrick said. She faces up to 90 days in jail, a sentence her attorney said they will not oppose.
The state is focused more on restitution and has made the unusual move of hiring an expert witness to estimate Houlihan’s lost wages, medical bills and projected costs for her care.
Already, Cobbett’s insurance has paid out the maximum amount to Houlihan, and her family continues to send Houlihan monthly payments without being court ordered, Keller said. Houlihan confirmed that she is receiving $2,000 a month from the family.
But no amount of money will bring back who she used to be.
What gives her some compensation, she said, is warning others about the perils of driving while distracted.
She has done so in this column, TV interviews, social media, a Turner’s School of Driving class and, she hopes, a Ted Talks in the future.
“It’s the only thing positive that’s come out of this,” she said.
For the rest of us, it’s something to pay attention to.