Tag Archives: reform

Shayna’s Story



North Dakota passed legislation to strengthen DUI penalties in 2013. The deadly 2015 DUI crash you are about to learn about would be the precedent-setting case testing the mettle of the law. Three young women—two of them University of North Dakota students on summer break—met up for a night of fun. What they got was a parent’s worst nightmare.

We will also explore why North Dakota and other sparsely populated midwestern states have some of the highest DUI numbers per capita in America—and why that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.


Shelley’s Story



We all blame the driver in a DUI crash that injures or kills people or damages other’s property. But sometimes the problem isn’t just one person.

With a DUI crash, we typically turn the other way if we aren’t directly affected. We read stories and we get angry at the person who was driving drunk.  In this case, it was Shelley Rose who drove drunk and killed innocent people.

It’s her fault, right?

Well, the story is so much more complicated than that.

No one dreams of growing up and becoming an alcoholic and killing people in a drunken or impaired car crash.

But some of us—all of us, actually, at times in different circumstances of life—need roadblocks, boundaries, mentors, tough love—to save us from ourselves.

Instead, Shelley Rose was her own worst enemy. Unfortunately, she had several partners in crime, including those sworn to protect us.

This is the story of how Shelley Rose arrived at that fateful Thanksgiving Day 2018.