Sisters Share Same Loss: Both Husbands Killed by Drunk Drivers

By: Kim Eiten - Email

Updated: Wed 9:33 AM, Aug 01, 2012

It takes more than thirty lives a day, and for one family in Grand Island it took two.

They were brothers-in-law, both killed by impaired drivers.

Two accidents, and two sisters share the same story. Both of their husbands were killed by drivers under the influence.

"He said 'Okay, I'll be home in awhile.' Well, twelve minutes later, he's dead," Grand Island resident Phyllis McCarville said of the day her husband died.

His name was Don McCarville. He was out for an afternoon drive on the motorcycle he loved so much.

He had no idea the he was about to share the roadway with someone police say was high on meth.

"He didn't have anywhere to go. He couldn't get out of the lane. She was across the line and there was just no way," McCarville said. "She did something to us that we can't ever get back."

For this family, it was history repeating.

"They said your brother-in-law has been killed, and I said it can't be," McCarville's sister Joan Sullivan said of that day.

Sullivan lived through the same situation just six months before, almost to the day.

"This pick-up came across the center line and hit us," she said.

Her husband, Sam Sullivan, lived for a day and a half after that. The driver that took his life was drunk behind the wheel.

Now, Joan wears what's left of her husband close to her heart.

The loss and the heart ache they're feeling is the reason for sharing their story.

They're hoping for a change.

"If it helps just one person, one family, from going through this senseless death, I just hope it happens," Sullivan said.

"They just can't let this go," McCarville said. "There's too many innocent people."

As for the drivers in both cases, the women said they're not angry. They said, they'll have to face the court.

In the meantime, the family is leaning on one another and looking for closure.