An open letter from a mother of son killed by DUI driver

Canadian cyclist Cameron Jaeger was killed while riding in Montana when Darlene R. Severin, 46, hit him while driving drunk. Severin was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 20 years suspended, after emotional testimonies in court. On April 27, 2024, Severin was driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.233—nearly three times the legal limit—near Clancy, Montana. She was speeding at 125 km/h in an 80 km/h zone and failed to brake until 0.06 seconds before the collision. Despite her nursing and military background, she fled the scene without helping and was later apprehended by police.

His mother has written an open letter to politicians as “Bobby’s Law” will be presented to the Montana House of Representatives on Tuesday. The bill is named after Bobby Dewbre, who was struck by a drunk driver while crossing the road to his sober ride on his 21st birthday in Columbia Falls, Mont. The driver had a blood alcohol level of 0.20, more than twice the legal limit.

The bill calls for stricter penalties for drunk drivers. It proposes a new crime, aggravated vehicular homicide while under the influence, with prison terms of 3 to 30 years and fines ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. Sentences would be mandatory for offenders with a BAC over 0.16.

Below is the letter from Sandy Jaeger, printed with her permission.

An open letter from Sandy Jaeger

Dear Representative Bertoglio,

On the eve of the presentation of Bobby’s Law on the Montana House floor, I write to you as the anguished and broken mother of Cameron Jaeger, who was killed near Clancy, Montana, last April.

Our 36-year-old Canadian son loved coming to Montana from Alberta with friends to spend time with his cousin and his family in Clancy. He was a confident and proficient outdoorsman, having grown up in a park ranger family in the Rockies outside of Calgary. Cam was a skilled professional geologist, managing multi-million dollar projects in the Crowsnest Pass for Teck Mines. He was a phenomenal rock and ice climber, fisherman, hunter, cross-country skier, competitive varsity swimmer, dog handler, and woodcarver.

He served six seasons as an Alberta Wildland firefighter during his university days, a vitally important role, especially in light of what we are seeing in your neighboring state of California right now. While Cam lived an adventurous lifestyle, traveling and exploring across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and South America, his ultimate goal on all trips and with his friends and firefighting crews was the critical responsibility of getting everyone home safely. Most of all, though, he was an incredibly kind, compassionate, and loving son, brother, partner, uncle, cousin, nephew, and friend who gave the best hugs.

We have been absolutely gutted by the senselessness of the event on April 27, 2024, outside of Clancy. A driver, who was almost three times the Montana limit for blood alcohol content (0.233), struck our son on a frontage road at a speed of 125 kilometres per hour., with little to no effort to brake. She backed up her vehicle to disentangle his destroyed bike and body from her vehicle, then drove away 5.5 km. Since then, she has pleaded that a) she didn’t know she struck a human being, and then conversely, b) she was afraid of consequences from his friends, who are a City of Calgary firefighter and a pharmacist in one of your hospitals in Helena. She knew she had done something terrible but didn’t take any responsibility.

As a former military member and nurse, who worked with the “Wounded Warrior” program, surely she should have held herself to a higher standard of behavior and the code of “doing no harm.”
After travelilng to Montana and Jefferson County on Jan. 15 to present Victim Impact Statements, I truly appreciated the judge’s sincere desire to provide justice and fairness to all involved. We have been grateful to both the Sheriff’s Office and the Montana Highway Patrol, who recreated the scene, with a driver of his size, with his size of bike, wearing blaze orange (that Cam was apparently wearing), and concluded that a sober driver, doing the legal speed limit, would have had adequate time to safely avoid contact. We are grateful to the Prosecutor’s office and staff, who have kept us informed with kindness and compassion. We are grateful to MADD Pacific Northwest, who have supported us through this nightmare.

We will forever be grateful to the “Good Samaritan,” who also witnessed the crash from the Interstate, left the highway, and followed and pinned Ms. Severin’s vehicle down the road, stopping her from evading the Highway Patrol officers, which she was desperately trying to do. We are finally grateful to the Helena Independent Record, and writer Sonny Tapia for featuring this tragedy on the front page of the paper on Thursday.

At sentencing on Jan. 22, we were moved by the judge’s total rebuke of all of Darlene Severin’s reasons for having killed our son. He placed the blame squarely on her shoulders, quoted vivid and heartbreaking comments he had read and heard in pre-sentencing, and told her that nothing she did would ever repay what she stole from Cam and our family. He then chose to disregard the plea bargain Ms. Severin and her lawyer had agreed to (in return for having the hit-and-run charge dropped) of seven years, with no eligibility for parole for that complete time. Although he theoretically sentenced her to 10 years, she will be able to apply and likely receive parole in two and a half years.

We are appalled that a former nurse and military service person, who pledged to serve their community, should have had such low regard for the sanctity of life.

Nothing will bring back our beloved son. Our lives are changed and saddened forever. But if you and your colleagues can find a way to deter the staggering number of DUIs in your state, it can perhaps help lower the also staggering number of families who are crushed by the selfishness of drivers who drive while impaired. Surely, the U.S., as great and powerful as it is, can be better than this.

Hoping you will give Bobby’s story, and Cam’s story, the profiles they deserve, so no other mother, father, brother, partner, cousin, aunt, uncle, or best friend has to go through this because of a visit to your state.

With hope for a better future,

Sandy Jaeger