On Aug. 16, 2017, my nephew, Shaw Lewis, was killed in a car crash on Interstate 70, near Rifle. The other driver was having an epileptic seizure. He is in prison.
Jeffrey Burk knowingly lied on his online driver’s license renewal, claiming he had no conditions which would impair his driving. He had been advised by a DMV agent to answer this question truthfully, and he decided to lie. He had been in previous accidents in which he had seizures, injuring three other people before killing my nephew and injuring a state trooper.
Burk was driving a work truck when he crashed into my nephew. In at least one other accident, injuring two women in Vail, he was also driving a company vehicle — steel company’s vehicle, owned by his father.
Recently, we all had to write victim impact letters, again to voice our wishes to keep Burk in jail. At the very least the system should show Shaw’s children that when someone intentionally breaks the law, and in doing so takes their father away from them, that there are people in place to uphold the law that says that person will be held accountable. And the law should protect the family from the frequent appeals this man is making. He hasn’t even served one year yet, of a 2 1/2 year sentence.
And how is it the father, this steel company executive, who knowingly allowed his son to be insured in company vehicles, isn’t in jail?
Caroline West
Carbondale
