Wright Here
By Cyndi Wright

A sad chapter in the lives of four people ended late Friday evening when a local jury found Cedar Creek resident Susan Moore guilty of intoxication manslaughter and sentenced her to nine years in prison.
Susan Moore and the other three people in the story should never have met in the first place. If that meeting had not occurred on Texas 71 in Bastrop County more than two years ago, there would have been a fifth person with a life’s story left to tell. But the accident caused by Moore killed Eileen McGurk, ending her story on this earth.
Left behind to mourn were Eileen’s husband, Paul, and countless family and friends back in Ireland, where the McGurks and the driver of the vehicle, Patrick McAteer, were from. What started out as a trip of a lifetime, coming to the United States, ended not with Paul and Eileen flying back to Ireland sitting next to each other in the plane with new memories of their trip to share, but with Paul sitting alone in the plane and Eileen’s body in the cargo compartment below.
It’s not hard to imagine the torment and grief felt by Paul McGurk, as he flew back to Ireland alone. It’s not hard to imagine that he maybe wishes he was also taken in the crash. By all accounts, he has yet to recover and move on with his life. I’m sure that many of us can certainly understand that when we look at our own life partners and try to imagine going on alone.
Also in the crash was Patrick McAteer, known by his friends as “Paddy.” There is a picture of Paddy, sitting with his Texas friend, who was also in the car, at some function just prior to the accident. He is a handsome man who obviously enjoys life and all it has to offer. A picture taken a year later tells of the struggles Paddy has endured, not only because his best friend lost his wife, but also because Paddy lost an arm and a spleen in the accident, and the host of medical problems that accompany those injuries has taken a severe toll.
So on that day in September 2007, Paul and Eileen, and Paddy and his friend, loaded up to take a trip to see one of Texas’ iconic sites – the Alamo. But they did not get to see the Alamo. Instead, they met Moore, who was on her way home from working at a café in Austin. Moore admitted that she drank a vodka and soda drink after work, before leaving to drive home in the late afternoon.
What’s especially scary to me about this wreck, and others like it, is that you just don’t expect to have to worry about drunk drivers during daylight hours. Many of us prefer not to drive after a certain time, because we know the odds are higher at say, 10 p.m. or midnight, to have someone careening along the road who has had too much to drink and then gotten behind the wheel. You just aren’t looking for it during broad daylight.
And then there’s Susan Moore, the other person in the accident, whose life story has certainly opened a new chapter, one in which the 60 year old will spend at least the next few years of her life in the Texas Department of Corrections, wearing prison clothing and being known as a number. Moore is an ordinary person. She has worked during the last few years as a waitress and a grocery clerk. She is just one of many human beings on the planet, trying to get by and live her life. She did not want to kill Eileen McGurk. She has admitted that she is sorry for what happened.
There’s probably not many of us out here who could claim that during our entire lives we have never drunk enough alcohol to be beyond the legal limit and still gotten in a car and driven home. The legal limit is not that high. Many can still function at that level. The only difference is that Moore got caught – and someone died.
Moore has said that she was driving along Texas 71 when suddenly a truck hauling a trailer in the next lane started moving into her lane. That’s entirely believable if you have ever driven on almost any Texas highway. Moore swerved to avoid the truck and lost control, crossing the median and smashing into the vehicle driven by Paddy McAteer. If you’ve ever been in an accident or witnessed one, you know how fast things happen. In many cases there is not time to think, you just react.
Maybe if Moore had not imbibed enough alcohol to actually put her at almost twice the legal limit, she might have handled things better. There’s no way to know. The fact remains that she did drink enough alcohol to put her above the limit and she had an accident where someone died and someone else was seriously maimed. In those circumstances, it does not really matter if Moore was too drunk to drive or not. She immediately became culpable for the accident as soon as she made the decision to get behind the wheel with too much alcohol in her bloodstream.
This sad end to this chapter in the lives of Susan Moore, Paul McGurk, Paddy McAteer and his friend, is over, thanks to a jury of ordinary, everyday folks, who gave a week of their lives, to help end it. Susan Moore going to prison is never going to bring Eileen McGurk back to life, or even ease the pain that Paul McGurk and Paddy McAteer live with every day.
There is a lesson here – as there always is in every story. Don’t start a tragic chapter in your own life by making a decision that could cost you or someone else a precious life or your own precious freedom.