Just when we hoped we’d heard the last of him, Walter Depner returned to the news last week.

In August 1999, Depner made a choice that a family whom he’d never met paid for with their lives. Thomas Burleson was driving his family home from Six Flags Great America on Route 120 near Lakemoor when an intoxicated Depner crossed the center line in his minivan and struck Burleson’s vehicle.

Eva Burleson, 43, and her children, Daniel, 13, Tiffany, 11, and Dallis, 7, were killed in the crash. Thomas Burleson also was seriously injured, but he survived.