Uncle Paul and Char: The tragedy that didn't need to be

I've been hesitating to write this blog because the subject material is touchy. However, after some good thought, I've decided its what needs to be said then, perhaps we can move on to sunnier stories.

This week I attended my uncle's funeral. Funerals are never happy occasions but this one was tinged with an extra dose of tragedy considering that his death was both untimely as well as unnecessary.

I got the call on the evening of Friday, November 5th. My mother was on the other end, she was obviously upset.

"My little brother, Paul, (his wife), Shirlene, their son Cameron and his fiance were just in a terrible accident in Wendover. Some of them were life-flighted to the University of Utah hospital. I don't know any other details yet."

I told her to call me the minute she heard more. Anxiously I awaited her call, all the while hoping and praying that everyone in the car would be alright.

"Don't let them die this way, please. It's just not right." I thought aloud.

several hours later, as Nate and I were just crawling into bed, the call came. My mother could hardly talk through her sobs.

"Paul didn't make it." She finally uttered. And I didn't know how to react, or what to say, so I just didn't say anything.

The next morning I drove my mother and father to the hospital in Salt Lake to see my aunt Shirlene who was badly injured in the accident. Once we talked to her and her other two sons we learned that the accident was a result of a faulty gas petal.

Remember the Toyota recalls a few months ago? Well, Paul and his wife owned a Toyota Carolla. Once the recalls came out they did their due diligence and took their carolla in to be inspected. Apparently, Toyota cared enough to fix half the problem and leave the other half to chance. Telling my Uncle that yeah, the entire problem isn't going to be fixed at Toyota's expense, but that the chances of the other part of the problem actually being a problem was slim to none.

Unfortunately, Toyota's half-assed job at fixing their mistake caused my Uncle, and as we were soon to discover, his future daughter-in-law's life. Soon after my Uncle was pronounced dead in the ambulance, my cousin's fiance, Char, was also pronounced brain dead due to severe head trauma and the choice was made to take her off life support. Char was thirty-eight years old she leaves behind two teenaged children, parents, and of course my cousin, her future husband.

My Uncle Paul was sixty-six years old and full of fun-loving life. He leaves behind his wife of forty years, three sons, two daughters-in-law, four grandchildren, and two older siblings, one of them being my mom.

I suppose I've hesitated writing this blog because my sadness is equally matched with anger. And anger won't do anything to bring back the lives that were tragically lost. However, I finally decided that people should know the truth. That despite their claims to care so deeply about their customers' safety, when all is said and done, Toyota is just a very large, very successful and very insincere business that cares about one thing; The bottom line.

Buyer beware.