Wayne Braden lost his precious daughter after a drunk driver crashed into the car she was traveling in with her mom. Little Aliyah was only 1 year old.
“Her scent is gone. I can’t smell her anymore. She's gone,” Braden told reporters as he held his daughter's baby blanket.
Months after the crash, Braden came face-to-face with the drunk driver in a Hawaii courtroom.
Valereen Kaleohano-Knittle cried as she apologized to Braden, saying she's "not the same person she was that day in May." The defendant also made a promise to work to keep drunk drivers off the road. She pleaded guilty and was given 10 years in prison.
Wiping away tears, Braden responded to her words in an unexpected way: with an act of forgiveness that left even the judge in shock (much like the moment this mother forgave her teen daughter's killer).
With about 30 people dying every day in the United States as a result of an alcohol-impaired driver, Braden also said he wants more intense laws on drunk driving.
"There's thousands of girls that look just like that, beautiful, who are out there waiting to be smashed by drunks who have no consideration whatsoever," Braden said in court, according to Hawaii News Now.
Watch the emotional moment below and please SHARE to help stop drunk driving.
