In my latest Went West column, I take a look at Montana’s culture of drinking and driving.
In the last days of the terrible year 2009, Missoula residents received a fresh helping of horror to carry with them into the new year. The day after Christmas, four local high-school girls were walking along a dark stretch of highway on the edge of town when a pickup truck drifted off the road and slammed into them. The crash killed two of the girls and hospitalized the other two.
Court documents say that the accused driver had a blood alcohol content of .147 three hours after the accident. He was also on prescription medication. And in a sort of trifecta of recklessness, he happened to be talking on his cell phone when he plowed into the girls, who were walking about five feet from the edge of the road.
The rest is here.