The Honorable Thomas R. Caltagirone
Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
PA House of Representatives
106 Irvis Office Building
PO Box 202127
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2127
Dear Sir:
I am writing to ask you to please bring House Bill 513, increasing the mandatory minimum sentence for an accident resulting in death from one year to five years' imprisonment, up for a vote in your committee.
I am the individual who wrote to State Representative David Reed asking for laws to be changed regarding hit-and-run crimes. My younger brother, Sean Pearce, was killed July 15, 2005 by a hit-and-run driver. A few weeks after Sean was killed I decided that I had to do something so that he did not die without cause. The only way I see fit to honor his memory was to change laws so another family does not have to deal with the legalities that we know we will some day face. One year of imprisonment for someone who so callously took a life and did not stop is not enough. Five years is not enough. No time is enough. I understand that accidents happen but to just leave a human being laying on the road without checking to see if they need medical attention is someone who is bereft of human decency. What if my brother would have survived if he was given immediate medical attention? I am a moderator for the website www.deadlyroads.com The gentleman who created the website did a lot of research and learned that approximately 4 people are killed every day in the United States due to a hit-and-run driver. It has become an epidemic. The laws do not scare people enough to stay and call for help. The laws encourage these people to run. If they do stop, they are facing more jail time than if they ran away. 99% of the drivers who flee the scene do so because of either a suspended license, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or some other infraction. The individual who killed my brother was caught 13 months later. He admitted to being drunk and on drugs at the time he killed Sean. I was out to dinner with my husband and cousins a few weeks ago and ran into the individual who killed Sean. He was drinking in the bar area and his car was parked outside. So did he learn from killing Sean? Does not look like it. Of course we have not gone to trial yet. BUT you would think that someone who hit and killed someone while drunk would not be out drinking and driving again.... Wishful thinking....
Sean was a very endearing young man. He was loved by many. Over 600 people attended his funeral and you could see grown men crying over the death of my brother. When we were younger Sean , still in high school, would drive to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania one evening a week to take me to get groceries and run other errands. Sean always tried to make everyone laugh. He would tell stupid one-line jokes that annoyed me to no end but now wish for those jokes to be told by him. My sister and I worked very hard to find the person who killed Sean and left him alone on the highway. We hired a lawyer, a private investigator, we followed up with the police, we raised funds for a reward, etc. Not knowing for 13 months was unbearable. But what was worse was the fact that the person who destroyed us might go to prison for only one year!
This crime has shattered my family and our lives. I was married 5 weeks before Sean was killed so my first year of marriage has been one of turmoil. I could not get out of bed most mornings. When my parents divorced three years prior to Sean being killed, our family was still intact. When Sean was killed, we all just fell apart. We can no longer have family functions and enjoy our time together. My mother is lost. She has said that she wants to be with Sean in Heaven. My sister and I can no longer go to my mother with problems we are having....in a way, she died with my brother.
Even the happiest of occasions are shadowed by his death. The day I found out I was pregnant, I was so excited, calling everyone. An hour later, I sat and cried because I could not call my brother with the news. I gave birth to my first child, my parents first grandchild, in February 2005. When I first held her I cried so hard that the doctors asked if I was in pain. I was crying over Sean.... Yes, holding my precious little girl for the first time and I am crying tears of sadness for my little girl who will never know her uncle.
I am appealing to you to please help us make a change! My family was given a life sentence without my brother. A year imprisonment is not enough for the individuals who commit this crime.
I will come to Pennsylvania to speak to you or anyone else if you would like.
Respectfully,
Sean Pearce's Sister
Shannon Leigh Anderson
43303 Parlor Square
Ashburn, VA 20147
703-858-5137 (home)
858-345-0166 (mobile)
703-984-7593 (office)
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