Family of mother killed by drunk driver happy MPI will help others in the same position

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This article was published 05/05/2015 (3814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The memory of Margaret Schlichting’s daughter, Samantha, killed in 2012 when the car she was driving was hit head on by a drunk driver, was honoured in a unique way on Tuesday in the Manitoba legislature.

Bill 17 will ensure ongoing benefits are paid to families when stay-at-home caregivers for children or infirm adults are killed in collisions.

Retroactive to May 1, it didn’t come in time to help Samantha’s surviving partner, Landon Hay, and their children, Wyatt, now 4 1/2 and Cheyenne, who will be three next week. But Bill 17 will help families like Samantha’s in the future.

“Life goes on and you’ve got to think of the positives. It’s all about the future,” Schlichting said. “Be nice if it could help us out but it’s good it’s there for others.”

Samantha was a 21-year-old stay-at-home mom when she was killed on Sept. 9, 2012, when the car she was driving on the Perimeter Highway was struck head-on by a drunk driver in a pickup truck going the wrong way.

Her two children and Hay were allowed only a one-time death benefit payment. But for a single dad with two young children, that didn’t go very far and left Hay, who works full-time, struggling with his grief, trying to find care for his children and a means to pay it.

The family spoke out at the time and drew public attention to the former system’s lack of value placed on an unpaid caregiver’s contribution.

Under Bill 17, when an unpaid caregiver is killed in a vehicle collision, surviving family members will receive weekly caregiver benefits so the support the individual had provided is recognized and replaced.

Weekly caregiver benefits would be $436 per week for families with one dependent to a maximum of $572 for those with four dependents.

Schlichting said the children and Hay moved into her home near Oak Bluff so she can help Hay, who works long shifts at Bituminex Paving, a St. Boniface asphalt plant, raise the children. He gets laid off each winter so he was just recently called back.

“They’re living with me. We help each other out. We take turns taking them to daycare and we help each other out,” said Schlichting, who works full-time as an office supervisor at a credit union. “It’s all about family.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca