This 4th of July holiday is like no other Brenda Montgomery's family's has celebrated before. Instead of gathering at her home, she takes her 5-year old grandson Ryder to visit his father's grave.
She says, "We don't have Aaron anymore. We never will have Aaron. When we go to visit Arron it's at his grave."
Last August, 28 year old Aaron Gillming was in the back seat of a truck driven by Ricky Crase, when Crase lost control and slammed the passenger side of the truck into a bride near Noel, Missouri.
Gillming and his friend John Lakey died on impact. Crase suffered only minor injuries and was arrested for drunk driving.
Brenda soon learned of Crase's previous DUI arrests. She tells 2NEWS, "He has numerous drunk driving convictions that date back to 1988. That's 21 years of drunk driving offenses. He was never going to stop. It took him 21 years to kill. But he did. And he killed two people."
Brenda says her son would have never gotten in the truck had he known Crase was drunk. Because 9 years ago, his cousin Lamonda Gillming and her two small children were killed by a drunk driver near their home in Texas.
With drunk drivers having claimed 4 members of her family, Brenda hopes her story will convince others to think twice.
"Every time a drunk driver gets behind the wheel of a car, they are driving as a potential murderer."
Montgomery is pushing Oklahoma lawmakers to pass legislation that would require repeat DUI offenders to have breath-ignition lock devices placed on their vehicles.
A similar law went into effect in Missouri this week.
