Man who nearly died in crash giving $25K for MADD bursaries
A Winnipeg man who nearly died eight years ago in a brutal crash in the United States is using money from a settlement against a driver to pay for bursaries for victims of drunk driving.
"I wanted to give back and instead of just sliding a cheque under the door, they gave me some options," said Garth Hazlitt.
On Oct. 16, 2009, Hazlitt was severely injured in a crash in Kansas City. In the early morning hours on an Interstate highway, a car in front of him hit a culvert then swerved in front of him, resulting in Hazlitt T-boning the car.
The collision fractured his sternum, ribs, and forearm, resulting in 40 hours of surgery in 21 days.
"I still remember the nurses telling me to breathe, breathe, breathe," he said. "It was a mess."
A year-and-a-half later Hazlitt, who was self-employed, had to have his leg amputated.
He said he was lucky enough to have insurance cover the steep U.S. medical bills, but it put a huge financial strain on his family, as he was the only source of income at the time of the crash.
The driver had been drinking and was charged with impaired driving, but a jury later found the driver not guilty, so Hazlitt launched a civil suit against him, he said.
"I just wanted him to say, 'Hey I'm sorry I messed up. I won't do it again.'"
Legal battle for settlement
After a lengthy legal battle involving several lawyers, Hazlitt said the civil suit against the driver is nearing its end with an out-of-court settlement for $50,000, half of which will go to Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada for bursaries. The rest will cover some, but not all, of his lawyers' expenses.
Hazlitt said the organization will give out one bursary of $4,000 every year to a graduating student whose parents were killed by a drunk driver. The father-of-two said while he had life-changing injuries from the crash, it wasn't the physical injuries that were the hardest — it was the mental.
"The physical is a small percentage of the head games you go through, the financial problems."
Today, Hazlitt sells accident and disability insurance and he has a message to anyone thinking of getting behind the wheel impaired: "Don't do it."
