Man With Epilepsy Who Caused Triple-Fatal Crash Sentenced To 100 Months
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- His wrong way crash near the airport back in 2016 killed a family of three, and seriously injured two others.
On Tuesday, 36-year-old Patrick Hayes -- who was driving despite his seizures from epilepsy -- is headed to prison. He got a driver's license without telling the state of his medical condition.
Where photos once showed happiness, a somber courtroom held only heartbreak, and the emotional words of a family ripped apart.
"People ask me all the time how I'm doing. I don't even know how to respond," said Sheila Miller, the victim's sister.
Hayes never told the state about his epilepsy, and shouldn't have been driving December 2, 2016. When driving the wrong way on Interstate 494, he crashed head-on, killing 2-year-old Peyton Bailey, his mother Dylan and grandmother Dawn.
"Not one day goes by without one more thing that I experienced that reminds me and brings back memories of my daughter and grandson," said Kelvin Bailey, Dylan's father.
The Bailey's had just picked up Olivia Nord, who was home from Marine boot camp. She'd spend the next 14 months in the hospital.
"I feel we are the flicker of a flame and you caused three of those flames to burn completely out," Nord said.
From a wheelchair, Hayes told the family he is deeply sorry about the crash.
"It was never my intention to hurt anyone, but I know what I did was wrong, and I have to live with the deaths of three people," Hayes said.
For that he'll serve 100 months in prison, for something no years or words will ever heal. Hayes will have to serve at least a third of that -- about five and a half years -- before he is eligible for release.