Victims' Family: Driver Should Be Punished

HOPE, Ind. -- Was a bright sun and a dirty windshield responsible for two children's death on a rural country road or did illegal drugs play a role?

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Police: Driver Tested Positive For Drugs

The family of an infant and a teen killed on a rural Bartholomew County road Wednesday spoke out about the incident.

Bryce Shuff, 3, and his aunt, Jerika Bair, 14 (both, pictured below), were killed after they were struck by a vehicle. Shuff's mother was also walking with the pair, but was not injured.

Police said the driver, Ben Weaver (pictured, left), 24, of Hope, tested positive for marijuana and amphetamines after the collision, RTV6's Sy Jenkins reported.

Vicki Low said she saw Bair pushing Shuff in a stroller moments before the crash occurred.

"For that split second I thought, 'I wonder what they would say if I told them not to walk down that country road,'" Low said. "I looked to my right and there was a baby stroller. Knowing that I saw them and they were gone ... and the mother was screaming."

Juni Miller was the first to reach the scene after the accident.

"He said 'Juni, I didn't see them. I killed a baby, I killed a baby.' He was ballistic. I've never felt so bad for someone in my life," Miller said.

But the victims' mother and grandmother wasn't sympathetic toward Weaver.

"I don't think there's anything that society can do to the driver that would be enough," Linda Bair said.

Weaver said he was blinded by the sun and a dirty windshield, Jenkins reported.

Weaver was arrested on two preliminary charges of causing death while operating a motor vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance.

Weaver was held with bail set at $16,000.

Police aren't saying that Weaver was intoxicated at the time of the accident, and don't know how long before the accident he had used drugs, Jenkins reported.