Steve Peterson’s world forever changed back on May 5 of last year.

His son, 37-year-old Corey, along with two other people, lost their lives when a pickup truck crossed over the center line and struck their vehicle in rural Pine River, in Cass County.

Last month, the driver convicted in the deadly crash was sentenced to more than 5 years in prison, for three counts of criminal vehicular homicide with an alcohol concentration of .08 or more within two hours of driving.

“It doesn’t seem right for a human life,” Peterson said.

The prison sentence the driver received didn’t sit well with this dad.

“If they don’t strengthen up these laws, there’s going to be more and more people dying from this situation, because people aren’t taking it as serious as they should,” Peterson said.

The Minnesota law appears to have been on the books since the late 1980s, which comes with a maximum prison sentence of up to 10 years per offense.

However, state sentencing guidelines limit when a judge can give the full 10-year sentence, depending on the driver’s past; that’s what happened in Cass County.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS checked a few neighboring states — records show Wisconsin sets the punishment for impaired driving that takes a life at up to 25 years in prison. Down in Iowa, it’s a possible 25-year sentence, and South Dakota has set the prison term up to 15 years, according to data assembled by MADD.

“You need to change laws to change behavior,” said Frank Harris, director of State Government Affairs, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Having a variety of possible prison terms across the country doesn’t send a strong message about impaired driving, Harris said. “It varies state-to-state, county-to-county, judge-to-judge on how much a person is actually sentenced if they kill somebody and it’s a huge problem.”

The Minnesota legislative session is scheduled to end in a matter of days.

Peterson hopes he’ll be able to connect with lawmakers on the issue before the next session begins in the winter.

This one father hopes lawmakers take a stand on impaired driving by increasing the penalties, so that other families don’t feel his pain.

“If you are going to respect the memory of your loved ones, you’ve got to try and help everyone who is still here,” Peterson said.