`Gregory Wynn came to in a hospital room in September 1983, battered from a car crash. His buddy Steve was in the next room in a coma. A nurse deflected questions about two friends in the car, who were dead.

`St. Louis police detectives told him a driver named Ricky Weeden had sped through a red light and plowed into their car.

`“They said they thought he had been drinking,” said Wynn, who escaped serious injury.

`Police did not document any alcohol use. Prosecutors passed on filing a manslaughter charge.

`It was the start of a trend.' -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch