Local mother shares heartbreaking story of losing daughter
Many law enforcement agencies call the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day the “100 deadliest days for teen drivers.” That’s because teens are out of school and on the road. Also on the road this Labor Day weekend, more officers watching for drunk, drugged or distracted drivers.
At the same time, Terry Cook reflects on the life of her daughter, Haley Bettencourt. The 17-year-old was killed in a deadly car crash near Lake San Antonio over the Memorial Day Weekend in 2004.
“She was fun,” Cook said. “She was funny, she was smart. She was outgoing. She was loved. Very much loved by her friends and her family.”
Haley was in an SUV driven by her best friend, who was drunk. Their vehicle crashed into another car. Both Haley and a woman in the other car died.
It was a hard road for Haley’s family to adjust to “the new normal.”
“In the beginning I used to think that whole “time heals all” was not true,” Cook said. “In a way it is kinda true, it’s not that it heals because the wound is still there but you find a different way how to cope.”
Haley’s mother went back to her hometown, South Lake Tahoe, and began taking part in programs that educate kids about drunk driving.
“I started doing their monthly Start Smart program and I was their personal testimony piece,” Cook explained. “It was quite interesting in Tahoe because a lot of the parents of the kids, it was mandatory the parents came with the kids, and a lot of parents were people I had gone to high school with. It really hit home with the parents of those teenagers.”
And a lesson that she learned with her daughter’s death is a message she wants to pass on to other teens.
“If you are gone, think about what’s going to happen to your parents,” Cook said. “Think about what’s going to happen to your brother or your sister. Think about all your friends, what they’re going to go through because your death affects so many people. Your bad decisions affect so many people.”
The teen convicted of those two deaths, did spend time in a juvenile correctional facility.
