May 7, 2022 4 min read

A Clarion man with his own life sentence caused by driving under the influence of alcohol spoke to local high school students to prevent them and their loved ones from having the same fate.

“I am living a life sentence through both drinking and drinking and driving,” Vernon Hilyer said Friday to a gathering of seniors and students going to the prom at Belle Vernon Area High School. “What I lost with my sentence, I’ll never get back again.”

What he lost was his son, Brandon, who died in 2008 at the age of 21 in a one-vehicle collision in which Brandon had been driving following a night of bowling and stopping at a bar.

He died on impact and was ejected 90 feet from the vehicle after failing to negotiate a turn on a side road while traveling upwards of 80 miles per hour.

His blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit.

Hilyer said Brandon’s issues with alcohol started long before his fatal accident, by at least three generations.

“If it’s genetically in your family and your mom and dad broke the chain, you still have that gene and you still carry it,” Hilyer said, adding that while he never drank, the gene was carried to Brandon through his mother’s as well as Hilyer’s side. “One bottle can open it up for the rest of your life.”

Around the age of 15 and 16, Brandon would go to a neighbor’s house where they would drink beer in the woods, and it never stopped, Hilyer said.

Brandon, said Hilyer, was a popular kid, a very likable person and an athlete, but his drinking prevented him from finishing college, caused him to lose jobs and prompted him to steal Hilyer’s tools to purchase alcohol.

In 2007, Brandon turned 21 and totaled his car with the seat belt saving his life. Hilyer hoped that would be the wake-up call for Brandon to see what alcohol was doing to him, but the drinking continued.

“Alcohol is a monster,” Hilyer said. “It can take over.”

He said Brandon would ask to borrow his car for something, but Hilyer would see it parked in front of a local bar and then move the car himself so Brandon wouldn’t drive it. He tried to get Brandon help at a drug and alcohol center, but was told that Brandon needed to be there in person. He gave Brandon phone numbers so he could reach out for help, but once Brandon called him to say nobody answered the number when he was alone in the woods and drunk after his friends had gone.

“Alcohol is great when you’re with people, but when everyone leaves, it’s a depressant,” Hilyer said, adding that’s when Brandon threatened to jump off a bridge, which sent Hilyer on a search of every bridge in the area in the early morning hours, only to see Brandon come home. “He literally put me through hell.”

On the morning when Brandon died, Hilyer said he couldn’t sleep, as something woke him around 2:15 a.m. He heard a knock at 4 a.m. and opened the door to three police officers who were there to inform him of his son’s death.

“I said, ‘Why are you here? Is it my son or my daughter?'” Hilyer said, which, he added, took the officers off guard and caused one to stutter when asking if were Brandon’s father. “I said, ‘Yeah, my son’s Brandon. He’s dead, isn’t he?'”

Hilyer then had to break the news to his ex-wife, his daughter and his parents.

“Who does this effect? Everybody.” he said. “What are your parents going to do when you don’t come home?”

Hilyer went to the road where Brandon lost his life and something told him to go to the woods, where he found Brandon’s bowling shoe and next to a tree, he found his checkbook. Hilyer brought both items with him to the school Friday and everywhere else he travels across the state to share the message.

“I can’t help your friends, but you can,” he said.

Hilyer is known on Facebook as “Brandon’s Dad” and encouraged those attending to message him to prevent a life sentence for themselves and their loved ones.

The presentation at the high school was made possible by a partnership with the state Department of Transportation, the Highway Safety Network, AAA East Central and Belle Vernon Area High School’s MICSADD Club.

For more information, visit www.DUIawareness.com.