Danny Ray Dunn of ChattanoogaThe physical wounds have nearly healed on the five people seriously injured when their vehicle was struck last year by a driver on probation for his second DUI.
Some of the victims say a stiff prison sentence handed down to the driver Monday helped heal their trust in justice.
Tammy Lusk, 44, walked into Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern’s courtroom Monday, not knowing what would happen to the man who slammed his Dodge van into the back of her Ford Taurus on Interstate 24 last May.
She didn’t know if Danny Ray Dunn, 57, would receive probation, as he had so many times before, or the four-year maximum for the vehicular assault charge against him.
But Lusk knew one thing — Dunn needed to be off the streets. So she, the other passengers in the car and some of their relatives made the trek from Rainsville, Ala., to Chattanooga to help make that happen.
When Stern read her ruling and explained to the family that Dunn would receive the maximum amount — four years on each of the five charges against him to run consecutively, equaling 20 years — Lusk knew her prayers had been answered.
“I just hoped and prayed we could keep him off the streets. I hoped for as much jail time as possible,” she said. “We’ve been through a lot, and my daughter’s been through a lot more than me.”
When Dunn drove down the interstate the day of the crash, he hauled a record stretching back to 1987 with two dozen criminal charges ranging from patronizing prostitution to assault and theft.
And two DUIs. He was still on probation for one of those DUIs.
As a result of the crash, Lusk was sent to the hospital with a broken arm and ribs and a gash in her head. Her ex-husband, Jeff Lusk, had eight broken ribs. Her daughter, Lauren, had a fractured skull, jaw and eye socket, forcing her to spend the summer before her senior year in high school in the hospital and dealing with medical rehabilitation.
Kim Wehunt wasn’t in the crash but got one of the worst phone calls a mother can face when it happened. Her son, 12-year-old Dakota, was riding in the back seat with his friend Tanner Lusk when Dunn’s van struck the car. He suffered a broken bone in his eye socket and other fractures to his face, and he’s still having his left hip checked by a doctor, nearly a year later.
“My child had made the choice to spend the night with a friend,” Wehunt said Tuesday. “Sitting in traffic, unbeknownst to them, Mr. Dunn made the choice to drink, he made the choice to get in that vehicle and he made the choice to drive down that freeway.
“The Lusk family and my son didn’t make the choice to almost get killed that night,” she said.
On Monday, as they waited for their turn to speak to the judge about the pain they suffered, Jeff Lusk readied himself for disappointment.
“I was prepared to walk out of the courtroom mad,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Everyone in the crash lived and each victim has recovered or continues to do so, the Lusks said. But residues of fear linger. Feelings of being helpless remain.
“When I’m stopped in traffic, I’m always looking in my rearview mirror,” Tammy Lusk said. “I’m thinking please, please stop.”