(WSIL) -- When Zach Gowin thinks back on his relationship with his older brother Corey, he remembers the older-younger brother dynamic they had.
"We were really close when we were kids," Zach Gowin said. "He was about four years older than me, four and a half I think, and he was the typical older brother but he had cerebral palsy."
Both Zach and Corey Gowin were living in Carbondale, Illinois when the unthinkable happened.
"It was April 26th, 2012. Part of the reason I remember that date is that's the day I sat in my last law school lecture," Zach Gowin said. "And I got a call that night, that he was in an accident. That he was hit by a car."
"The idea that he would pass away never crossed my mind," Zach Gowin said. Corey Gowin died in that accident.
Zach Gowin now prosecutes similar cases as the State's Attorney for Alexander County.
"I remember what I went through when my brother passed away, from the accident that he was in. I do reflect on that and I do think in a certain aspect that helps me to the victims that I deal with in those types of cases," Zach Gowin said.
In order to try and bring awareness to the importance of safe driving, Zach Gowin told his brother's story in a , which runs on WSIL.
"If it helps anybody, if it any of us when we're on the road to remember how dangerous just the activity of driving a vehicle can be. And maybe helps us be a little more alert when we're behind the wheel and makes the roads a little safer, it'll be worth doing," Zach Gowin said.
