Three family members gone in an instant because of a distracted driver

On 12/12/2009, we lost three family members due to a teenage driver’s inattentive driving. Shirley Iverson, Debra Iverson Buhmann and Alexis Iverson were all killed in the head on collision. They had all been to the Sunday School Christmas practice. Deb was Lexi’s aunt and also her Sunday school teacher. Earlier that evening, Shirley and Lexi had their picture taken for the church directory. Since it was going to be the first picture Shirley had taken without her beloved husband Jerry (who passed away from cancer 2 ½ years earlier), she had asked Lexi to be in the picture with her. Lexi lived with her Grandma and mom so this seemed very appropriate. 

Deb had dropped off her children Bella (3 years old) and Abby (11 months) with her husband Bill while Shirley, Deb and Lexi ran an errand to Target. They didn’t plan to be gone long. At 6:52 pm, Deb was driving towards home on County Road 50. They were almost to Ipava Avenue when they were hit head on by a teenage driver. All three were killed on impact. The teenage driver was behind the wheel of a Chevy Silverado and Deb was driving an Elantra which is a very small vehicle. 

The teenage driver only had his license for 5 weeks. He was driving without his head lights on and had crossed two lanes of traffic when he hit them. The teenage driver says he doesn’t remember what happened, but due to his lack of remorse, we feel he does know what happened. There has been no justice in our case. The juvenile was charged with one count of careless driving for killing three people. He spent six weekends in juvenile detention and did not have to pay any restitution. Not only did our family have to endure the huge loss of three family members, we then had to suffer through the court hearings and lack of justice due to the current laws in Minnesota. 

Shirley was a beautiful mom, grandma and great-grandma. She was the glue that held the Iverson family together. She was the daycare provider for Bella and Abby. Her death has been extremely hard on our family. We no longer have the big gatherings at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our family has been torn apart.

Deb was a vibrant young mother with two beautiful daughters and a loving husband. She was the youngest of Shirley’s six children and they spent a great amount of time together. They attended the same church and were huge sports fans. They attended many sports games together. After their death we found tickets to a Timberwolves game that they had purchased for 12/26/09. 

Lexi was eight years old when she was killed. She was a beautiful blonde hair, blue eyed little girl. She loved school and her friends. She was an aunt to her older sister’s children and took pride in helping to take care of them. She loved her Mommy and Grammie very much. We thank God that she did not have to die alone, but with two of the people she loved most. We are sad that we won’t get to see Lexi go to prom or graduate from high school. She was a very young girl with an incredible future. 

The two year anniversary of their deaths just passed. It was a sad time but our family stopped everything at 6:52pm to light a candle and sing Silent Night in their honor and memory. We will continue to fight for greater laws for inattentive and distracted driving and appreciate all the hard work that Minnesotans for Safe Driving are doing to help with this cause.

Written by family member Carol Iverson in memory of her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece.

Shirley Ann Iverson	Alexis Rose Iverson	Debra Ann Iverson Buhmann and family