By Kelvin Wade
April 15, 2026
Last Wednesday, former Fairfield resident and Mothers Against Drunk Driving and We Save Lives founder Candace Lightner took part in a press conference at the State Capitol along with a bipartisan group of state senators and parents promoting the passage of Senate Bill 1071.
The bill simply says that after investigations and court proceedings have been concluded, a parent of a child whose death was originally ruled an accident can have it changed to reflect a homicide, if that’s the conclusion.
Full disclosure, I’ve been social media friends with Candace for about 15 years and she invited me to this conference, the first time we’d met in person. I’d read her horrible story many times, but had never heard her tell the story.
On May 3, 1980, 13-year-old Cari Lightner and a friend were walking to a church carnival in Fair Oaks when a drunk driver struck Cari, launching her more than 100 feet before fleeing. The man had three or four prior DUIs, including a hit-and-run earlier that week. He’d been out of jail a couple of days at most.
He was driving on a valid driver’s license.
When a devastated Candace asked the coroner to use her daughter’s organs to help someone else, he informed her that nothing was usable.
The man who killed her daughter received less than two years in prison and once he got out, racked up more DUIs.
At the conclusion of Candace Lightner’s statement, she held up her daughter’s 46-year-old death certificate and announced that it still says Cari’s death was an “accident.”
The Not An Accident Campaign is a national alliance dedicated to correcting this injustice for families. It doesn’t change how medical examiners determine cause of death, or require any doctor to change their medical opinion. And it doesn’t allow changes without a court ruling. It doesn’t change criminal law, charges or standards of proof. It’s only at the end of the legal process when a death that was originally ruled an accident can be changed to reflect the reality that the death was a homicide.
Matt Capelouto told the story of his daughter Alexandra’s fentanyl poisoning in 2019. She ingested what she thought was prescription medication, but it was laced with fentanyl. Her death was ruled an accident. Then the man who distributed that medication was arrested, prosecuted and sent to prison. Her death is still an “accident” on her death certificate.
Let me give you another example. If a coroner performs an autopsy on a hiker found at the bottom of a cliff and decides the injuries are consistent with a fall, she would rule it an accident. But what if three months later, someone confesses to pushing the person? It’s a homicide. The death certificate should reflect that.
Why does it matter? It matters for closure for families. When someone breaks the law and kills your loved one, that’s a homicide, not an accident. It also affects research. Researchers are missing the true scope of the impaired driving and fentanyl homicides if they go perusing death records and see all of these deaths labeled accidents. We’re not logging accurate numbers and that matters in public policy. It matters in the way resources are directed.
After the press conference, I asked a few people how could anyone be opposed to this? But some medical examiners bristle at the oversight. They feel like Big Brother is looking over their shoulder. But the law doesn’t require them to change their medical findings. When a coroner examines a body they must work with what they see. Afterwards, more facts may come out and it’s only after a court proceeding that the death certificate would be changed to reflect the reality of what happened.
Candace Lightner and the other parents testified before the Senate Health Committee later that day and the bill was passed on a 9-0 bipartisan vote. Next up is the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Tragically, this can happen to anyone. It’s a club that wants no more members. One of the fathers I met that day was from Fairfield. These families deserve this simple dignity after what they’ve been through.
Watching these parents hold photos of their children flanked by a bipartisan group of legislators and law enforcement actually getting something done — that was something. Politics is said to be the art of the possible – and this is possible. Make SB 1071 law. Peace.
