Weddings are very special events and this is the time when family and friends get together to celebrate the most important day of the bride and the groom’s life. Christopher and Denice are the bride’s parents and they rode together with the bride’s sister Jennifer and her husband Neil, and also their two daughters, Katie and Grace, got into the limousine that is supposed to take them home after a wedding, a day that was full of love and laughter. It was a good time to celebrate and everybody was happy.

The group left the wedding in a limousine from Long Island. As soon as they joined the highway, they didn’t know that a 24-year-old drunk driver named Martin Heidgen was also driving at the same time, on the same road. Sadly, Heidgen hits the limo head on when he was driving on the wrong side of the road. What supposed to be a happy day became a heartbreaking tragedy for this family.

The driver of the limousine, a 59-year-old man named Stanley Rabinowitz was instantly killed when he was crushed by the engine. The bride’s father, Christopher, broke different parts of his legs after he was thrown to the floor. This resulted in an amputation and Christopher lost both of his legs later on. Jennifer’s husband Neil tried to crawl out of the car to ask for help even though his back was broken. Jennifer, on the other hand, injured her foot and she was looking for Katie who was lying beside her during the ride.

What Jennifer saw next was something that no mother should ever witness. Her lovely Katie was decapitated by her own safety-belt.

The first person to respond to the scene was Michael Tangney, the bride’s uncle who is also a policeman. He was also at the wedding together with this family a couple of hours ago. He said, “I was walking to the rear of the limousine when a gentleman was coming away from it, and he said, ‘Don’t go back there. It’s bad.’”Michael shared that as soon as he opened the limousine door, he realized that it was his family. Despite everything that he saw, he was not prepared for what he was about to see next.

Jennifer came out of the limo, her daughter’s head in her hands. Katie’s body was still in the car, wearing a dress that she was so proud to wear for the wedding just a few hours earlier.

The heartbroken mother just sat on the roadside for a while, holding Katie’s head on her lap. She looked emotionally and physically broken as the rest of her family. She knew that it was time to let her go and she handed her to Michael.

She gently kissed her daughters’ face for the last time.

It was revealed later on from the police reports that Heidgens blood alcohol level was three times more than the legal limit. Aside from that, he was driving at a speed of 70 mph and he had already consumed at least 14 drinks. He was driving on the wrong side of the highway for at least two miles before he hit the limousine where the bride’s family was riding. Martin Heidgen was sentenced to 18 years in prison with two counts of second-degree murder.

No justice will ever remove the pain for Jennifer and the rest of her family. Despite their loss, Jennifer and Neil chose to speak up about their story. She was hoping that because of what happened to their family that night and the loss that they have been through, people should be able to see the seriousness of drunk driving. It is a crime and she is hoping that their story would be able to save more lives in the future.