The holidays are a time of fun with family and friends across Iowa, but all too often those festivities turn tragic when a driver gets behind the wheel after drinking. Among those who have had their lives turned upside down by drunk driving is Arlene Victor, whose son and daughter-in-law were killed in a crash in 1984.

“A drunk driver drove five feet over center and literally ran over their car with his jacked-up pickup,” says Victor. “Their baby survived the crash. She was injured and orphaned and we’ve raised her and we’ve lived it now for 30 years.”

Victor is now a victims’ advocate for the Dubuque/Jackson County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. On average, there are around 2,000 people arrested in Iowa for operating while intoxicated each year, along with nearly 100 alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

Another concern for Victor are those driving under the influence of drugs, especially as prescription medication abuse is growing and with the rising number of states allowing medicinal and/or recreational marijuana.

“It’s an increasing problem,” says Victor. “I have a real hard time with these states legalizing marijuana because, from what I understand it’s much more difficult for the officer to detect a drugged driver as compared to the drunk driver.”

(Iowa News Service)

Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Corrections said Tuesday, that a man who began serving a life sentence for a 1976 murder in Pottawattamie County, has died in prison. 65-year old Kenneth Boyd died Monday at the hospice care unit at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville. Boyd’s death was due to complications from renal failure.

Boyd was serving a life sentence for the 1976 Pott. County slaying of Omaha resident Charles Sallis. Boyd was convicted along with Charles Reese and Sallis’ wife, Katherine. Another man, Isaiah Jerry Jones, initially was charged with murder, too, but the charge was dropped when he agreed to testify for the prosecution. Boyd and Reese were from Gary, Indiana. Jones was from Omaha.