I Want To Save The Man Who Destroyed My Family

What would you do if a drunk driver killed your husband and daughter? How one remarkable mother transformed a tragedy into a life full of meaning and purpose.

- Jonathan Small

“ONE MORE HUG, MOM, ONE MORE KISS,” said 9-year-old Brittany Burnett to her mother, Jennifer. Dad Brian had just strapped their girls — identical twins Brittany and McKayla as well as Amber, 5 — into the family’s sedan for a trip to buy school supplies. Jennifer had a lot to do at home and had decided at the last minute to stay behind. She kissed Brittany, an angelic child who, despite struggling with cerebral palsy, was always smiling. Then she shut the door and waved goodbye.

The car headed south in Brighton, CO, passing farms and horses. A few miles away, Vladimir Gunin, a 57-year-old Russian émigré, was driving west. He had barely eaten or slept in over a day, but had been drinking heavily. As he drove, he slowed but did not stop at an intersection — and, too late, he saw the Burnetts’ car. The air filled with the horrible sounds of screeching tires, metal on metal and a shower of shattered glass.

The impact flipped the family’s car onto a fence, while Gunin’s pickup truck careened into a ditch. By the time ambulances arrived, Brian and Brittany were dead and the two other girls gravely injured. Gunin stumbled out of his car to ask police how the others were, then cried out to God and passed out in the road. At a later hearing, it was revealed that he had a blood alcohol level of .209. The legal limit in Colorado is .08.

It was August 11, 2004 — before smartphones were widely used — and it took police several hours to track down Jennifer. “I fell to the floor,” she says. “I was hysterical for a long time.”