When driving becomes homicide

A woman driving a car on U.S. 2 last April made a crucial mistake that cost two lives. Her error was not miscalculating the speed of an oncoming vehicle, or miscalculating driving conditions. It was not talking on a cell phone or reaching into the glove box at 70 miles per hour.

Those are all mistakes that could be fatal, but this mistake happened before Genevieve Baker had even gotten behind the wheel of her car. This mistake cannot be called an accident, although it led to tragedy when Baker's car slid into a motorcycle, then rolled into a ditch.

The unsuspecting young man on the motorcycle was dead; so was Baker's sister, visiting from Seattle. The driver was critically injured, her life forever changed.

It sounds like an accident, but it was not. An accident implies a sense of randomness, of unpredictability, of lack of responsibility - and nothing could be further from the truth. Driving drunk is not an accident; it is a decision.

And unfortunately for Genevieve Baker, when she decided to drink and drive that day, she set into motion the horrible chain of circumstances that ended those two lives. She would never see her sister again, and a newborn baby would never know his father, the young man on the motorcycle, Dan Haller, just 25, with his whole life ahead of him.

Last week, District Judge Stewart Stadler sentenced Baker to 40 years in prison, with 20 suspended, on two counts of vehicular homicide.

The message should be clear. You should not - you must not - drink and drive. The consequences are too dangerous, and too deadly. Genevieve Baker knows that now, too late.

But the rest of us should pay attention as well. It is important for all of us to remember we are responsible for our actions, including our stupid actions. If we value our peace, our serenity, our freedom, then we should not make the same stupid mistake as Genevieve Baker.

Even if we do not kill someone when we drink and drive, we are horribly guilty. In essence, every time a drunk person gets behind the wheel of a car, he or she is guilty of attempted vehicular homicide.

There can be no excuse, no explanation that will justify such a decision. We are all warned.