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'Shattered Dreams'

Subhead
Matt Boeve and Chris Weber featured in distracted driving video released Monday
Lead Summary
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By
Lori Sorenson

It’s been almost a year since distracted driver Chris Weber, then of Hills, killed 33-year-old Andrea Boeve, Steen, while she was bicycling along the road near her home.
Weber and Boeve’s husband, Matt Boeve, haven’t spoken to each other since the crash, but the two men agreed to be interviewed for a video that urges the public to pay attention behind the wheel.
The production, “Shattered Dreams: Distracted Driving Changes Lives,” was released on YouTube Monday, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKw-Q1M80o.
Produced by the Minnesota State Patrol and the Department of Public Safety, it features Weber and Boeve sharing their versions of what happened on that fateful summer day on June 30, 2014.
“We miss her terribly … the hugs, the touches, the love,” Boeve said about his wife, whom he describes as his soul mate. “It’s hard to go on without her, to wake up to an empty home and empty bed, all because of this person.”
Weber, for his part, tells viewers what it’s like to be responsible for that kind of loss. “I made a mistake that day that I can never take back,” Weber said. “I killed someone.”
While the men talk in the video about how their lives were forever changed, images of the Boeve family, the crash scene and Weber’s arrest fade in and out of the frame.
Weber talks about how he decided to make an online loan payment that day and that he remembers picking up the phone and then hearing a thud.
“I saw the bike and I knew it wasn’t good,” Weber says in the video. “My immediate thought was, ‘What have I done? How did I not see her?’ There was no doubt in my mind it was my fault.”
He said his life at that moment changed from a 24-year-old who enjoyed hunting and fishing to a convict serving a 120-day jail sentence. “There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think about it,” he said.
Boeve talks about working on the farm that day and getting a phone call that Andrea had been hurt.
“Then the shock started,” he said after hearing Andrea had died. And he soon got called to the hospital for his 4-year-old daughter who had five broken ribs and a punctured lung.
“Seeing her that way, full of tubes, is something a father should never have to go through.”
Boeve said he’s glad Weber has taken responsibility for his actions, but he said it hasn’t made it easier.
“It doesn’t bring Andrea back,” he said. “I know that’s what he would want; I know that’s what I’d want … That’s what we’d all want.”
Boeve said the only thing anyone can do is to work to prevent future tragedies. “That’s why we need to get the word out there — it doesn’t need to happen to anyone ever again.”
Weber has committed to talking at future educational events, urging drivers of all ages to pay attention.
“What I ask everyone to do is think about this when you pick up that cell phone,” he said. “Is that cell phone worth the life of the person next to you?”
At Monday’s event, Col. Matt Langer of the Minnesota State Patrol said “Shattered Dreams” is the result of a unique opportunity, since victims and offenders aren’t always willing to be part of such a project.
“Help us get this story out to as many people as we possibly can,” Langer said to the media gathered in St. Paul.
He said distracted driving accounts for one in four crashes and is responsible for 60 deaths and 225 serious injuries each year. He also pointed out that at 55 miles per hour, texting and driving is like traveling the length of a football field without looking up.
“Distracted driving has been around as long as there have been vehicles,” he said. “But we’re not always able to prove what happened at the time of the crash.”
Cell phone technology provides that proof, even though Langer said any number of things often serve as distractions in a vehicle.
Weber spoke at Monday’s event, reiterating his motives for being in the video.
“I don’t want anyone to have to go through what Matt and I had to go through,” he said. “This should have never happened. … Learn from my mistake. Don’t talk, don’t text, don’t even change the radio station. It can wait.”
Boeve declined to be part of Monday’s press conference and requested media respect his privacy, but he said the video allows his voice to be heard about the dangers of distracted driving.
“My hope is that this video will send a powerful message that no call or text is worth taking another person’s life on the road,” said Boeve, in a statement read during a press conference in St. Paul Monday.
“Before this crash, that could have easily been me, but no longer do I use my cell phone while driving and I plead for everyone on the road to put the phone down. … We miss Andrea more than anyone can imagine. … I know that Andrea would be proud that we are making an effort to change habits to make Minnesota roads safer.”

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