LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — While many families prepare for the holidays, one heartbroken Lake County mother said she's canceling Christmas.
In October, a man driving with a suspended license crashed into a car carrying the woman's mother and daughter, killing them both.
State Rep. Bob Cortes wants to take Ryan Painter’s fight for harsher penalties to the state.
"It's hard to get up some mornings not having your entire life there," Painter said. "We were super, super excited to put up a tree and do Santa because she was turning 4 years old in January. So it was the best year yet to come."
Painter still has pumpkins in her home where Christmas decorations should be.
"I can't celebrate without them. So I'm not going to do Christmas this year," she said.
Painter's daughter, Fallon, and her mother Debra Irwin, died the day before Halloween.
They buckled up and pulled out of Painter's driveway just moments before the crash near Howey-in-the-Hills.
"I heard a siren and that's when I knew, I knew it was them. So I got in my car and I rushed down there and I saw the car and I just was shaking my head. You know, my whole life, three generations and now there's just one," Painter said.
Troopers said James Walker, 22, lost control of his Jaguar on County Road 455. He already had a dozen traffic citations and a suspended license.
Walker also died in the crash.
"It was an unregistered car, recklessly going 110 miles an hour, not thinking about anyone else but himself, and he plowed straight into two innocent beautiful souls," Painter said. "People make choices and he made a choice that day that affected my life forever."
As Painter reflects on what could've been, she wonders if harsher penalties for repeat offenders, or a flashing light at the intersection, could have given her more time with the two most important people in her life.
"If I could just save one person, then that will bring me a little bit more peace. Because they were taken too soon," she said.
Painter and her family started an organization in her daughter and mother's honor to fight for harsher penalties and to reduce the risk for crashes similar to her mother's and daughter's.
The current law in Florida gives licensed drivers who cause a fatal crash the same consequences as those driving without one.
“When we go back to Tallahassee, that’s something that definitely we can go and start looking at and addressing,” said Cortes (D-District 30).
Investigators are still waiting on Walker's toxicology report.
Cox Media Group
