Joel Eggers wasn’t a people person, but he was a people person.
He had what his daughter Jennifer Zavala called a ‘grumpy old guy’ exterior. He was the kind of guy who kept his head down and got his work done. And God forbid he should catch you speeding or driving recklessly past his house—you might overhear a few curse words.
But if you went and talked to him, you’d meet a big-hearted man who loved his family and his Boise, Idaho community. Much like the title of one of Jennifer’s favorite songs, Joel was humble and kind. It’s why he was known as ‘Papa’—not just to his six grandkids, whom he adored—but to the entire community.
“He would give you the last dollar out of his wallet. He’d give you the coat off his back,” Jennifer said. “Once you approached him and talked to him, he was forever your friend.”
On April 8, 2016, Joel Eggers, 64, was hit and killed by an impaired driver, changing the lives of Jennifer, her family, and their community forever.
2:30 PM_April 8th, 2016
It’s a normal day. Everyone is at work. Jennifer is a stay-at-home mom to her three kids, Levi, MyKenzie, and NaKiyah. She’s preparing to pick them up from school.
At the same time, Joel takes his lunch break and goes for an afternoon walk on Development Road, not far from the Boise airport. He answers a phone call from his wife, Rose.
Before they end the call, Rose says: “Be careful. I love you.”
“I’m always careful,” Joel says. “And I love you too.”
2:40 PM_April 8th, 2016
About five minutes after the phone call, a 24-year-old impaired driver careens across two lanes and leaves the roadway, hitting Joel.
Two bystanders notice the crash and run over. One kneels beside Joel and begins praying with him until the EMS arrive.
3:30 PM_April 8th, 2016
Jennifer leaves to pick up her 8-year-old daughter from school.
3:42 PM_April 8th, 2016
Joel is pronounced dead. Prosecutor Benjamin Harmer later stated that he believed Joel was killed upon impact.
5:30 PM_April 8th, 2016
Jennifer and her daughter arrive at soccer practice. As she’s watching them play, her phone starts ringing. She doesn’t answer. Then she gets a text from a friend:
“You need to call Karl at your Dad’s work.”
She calls Karl, an old family friend known for buying a generous amount of Girl Scouts cookies from Jennifer’s daughters.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“You need to go to the hospital,” he tells Jennifer. “Your Dad’s been hit by a car.”
Back home, Jennifer’s oldest, 16-year-old Levi, is getting ready for his tradition of watching the Idaho Steelheads hockey game that night with Papa Joel.
More Than Just ‘Papa’ Joel
It wasn’t just the grandkids that called Joel “Papa.” It was the entire community.
“It got to the point where, even for us, he stopped answering to ‘Dad’ and only answered to ‘Papa’,” Jennifer said with a laugh. “He loved it. He became Papa to everybody.”
Joel worked full-time as a supervisor at Trimco Millworks and spent the weekends as Chief Starter at Firebird Raceway. For 28 years, he made sure the tracks were safe and free of oil spills for the drivers. He was a beloved part of the Firebird Raceway family.
When he wasn’t hard at work, he was snapping photos. Jennifer said he was either called “Papa” or “the man with the camera in his hands.” His favorite subjects were, of course, his grandkids.
“Being a Papa became his world,” Jennifer said. “When the grandkids came along, he started saying, ‘Let’s use vacation time for the grandkids to go here and go there.’ They were his top priority.”
He and Levi, his first grandchild, shared a special bond. They spent a lot of time together and regularly attended Idaho Steelheads games, sitting in their reserved seats and cheering from the stands.
“My son was my Dad’s very best friend,” Jennifer said.
5:45 PM_April 8th, 2016
A million thoughts race through Jennifer’s mind, processing what Karl has just told her. She feels panic start to rise. She thinks, “Poor guy in the other vehicle. My Dad probably went off on him left and right. He’s Mr. Safety.”
“Where do I go? Which hospital?” she asks Karl.
He tells her, and she fumbles for her keys. A fellow soccer parent steps in and offers to take her daughter home when practice is over. Another offers to drive her to the hospital.
On the way there, she calls Levi.
“Hey, is grandma driving?”
“No…”
“Can you put her on the phone?”
She tells them both what’s going on, and to meet her at the hospital.
Then she calls the hospital and asks about her dad.
“It’s just like in all the movies,” she recalls. “They tell you nothing.”
She continues calling other family members. Her brother. Her Aunt, her dad’s twin.
“You need to come to the hospital,” she keeps saying. “You need to come to the hospital.”
6:15 PM_April 8th, 2016
Jennifer and her family arrive and are ushered through double doors and into a waiting room. They wait for what feels like forever. Her daughter NaKiyah is dropped off from soccer practice and joins them.
Impatient to see Joel, her mother leaves the waiting room, and Jennifer follows. They nearly collide with a tall doctor in blue scrubs and a white jacket. He tries to usher them back into the waiting room, but Rose demands to see her husband.
“I want to see him right now!” she says.
The doctor looks down and pulls his blue hat off.
“He didn’t make it.”
Wake up, Dad
Jennifer remembers this part in fragments. She can’t picture her kids’ faces, try as she might. She can’t remember what they heard or saw. But she remembers seeing her mother collapse to the floor.
“We all lost somebody at a different level,” she said. “I felt like my Mom should turn around and pick her kids up, right? We just lost our Dad. And I should have turned around and picked my kids up, they just lost their Papa. But we were all in our own grief.”
She remembers the doctor taking them to where Joel lay. The hit had caused blunt force trauma internally, so there was no bruising that she could see. It simply looked like he was sleeping.
“I remember crying and asking him to please wake up. He had to get up. Please, daddy, you got to wake up,” Jennifer said.
Leaving the hospital that day, she said, was the hardest thing she’s ever done. Her husband brought the kids home and picked up pizza for dinner. Everyone went to their rooms and no one ate.
That evening, Jennifer and her Mom drove to Nampa to tell her grandma what happened. “No. Not Joel,” she said when she learned. On her way home, Jennifer drove to a gas station and parked the car.
“I just screamed and cried,” she said. “Then I got control of myself again and went home to bed, and just hoped that the next morning I would wake up and that it would all be a nightmare.”
Impaired Driving in Idaho: The Data
Joel Eggers’ death rocked the community, and news coverage spread across Ada County and beyond. His funeral was standing room only, with over 500 in attendance. He was even honored at the Idaho Steelheads game, where they announced his passing. The day after, they found a Steelheads jersey, a Mountain Dew (Joel’s favorite), and a flower resting on his seat.
From the racing community to the hockey community, to co-workers, friends, and family—he is deeply missed and loved by many.
Sadly, he is also one of many to be killed by an impaired driver in Idaho.
In Idaho alone last year, 105 people were killed in an impaired driving crash—each one a mother, father, child, or friend.
105 unfinished stories, 105 empty seats; seats where loved ones should be sitting today, but they aren’t, because of someone’s choice to drive impaired.
Maybe you know someone who has driven impaired or might consider it. You may have even told them, ‘Be careful’ or ‘Maybe you shouldn’t drive.’ It can be easy to feel powerless in these moments. But you have more power than you might think to prevent another family’s tragedy.
Impaired Driving in Idaho: What You Can Do
The goal is zero deaths on the road. How do we get there?
When it comes to impaired driving, the answer is at the intersection of public health and public safety. We have health professionals working to help with substance abuse disorders and public safety partners working to get impaired drivers off the road.
But it’s not just on them to fix this problem—members of the public can help. Here’s what you can do:
If you see someone under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol planning to drive:
1. Say something.
The man who killed Joel Eggers was allegedly with a friend right before he drove. The friend saw his condition and offered to drive—but the driver said no. Be the friend that doesn’t take no for an answer.
2. Offer easy solutions.
An impaired person is not thinking rationally, so trying to reason them into not driving typically won’t work. Instead, offer easy solutions. If you are sober, offer them a ride home. Or, offer to call them a rideshare or a place to sleep for the night. Better to crash on a couch than to crash on the road.
If you’re planning to have a night out drinking:
Plan your sober ride ahead of time.
- Appoint someone as the designated driver.
- Plan to call a rideshare, like Uber or Lyft, at the end of the night.
- Ask a family member or friend to pick you up.
- Sleep it off and drive the next day when you are sober.
Have fun and enjoy yourself. We’re not discouraging drinking—we’re encouraging everyone to plan for a safe, sober ride. The key to eliminating impaired driving deaths is thinking ahead.
“They say you start drinking when you’re sober,” Jennifer said. “So, finish that sober thought of—what am I going to do after I drink? How am I going to get home? Where am I going to stay?”
With Uber, Lyft, taxis, friends, family—there's no excuse for impaired driving.
Remember Joel Eggers
It’s been almost nine years since Joel’s death.
Rose Eggers still thinks of him in the grocery aisles, when she walks past items she would buy just for Joel, or when she looks for him next to her and he’s not there.
Levi and NaKiyah continue to go to Idaho Steelheads games, cheering from the seats Joel loved.
Jennifer shares her family’s story as an advocate with MADD—Mothers Against Drunk and Drugged Driving. In sharing her grief of losing Joel, she hopes to impact the hearts of others and prevent more impaired deaths.
Her advocacy work includes being on an impact panel for DUI offenders in Idaho. The audience ranges from 16 to 75 years old. Some are first-time offenders, others have been there before. Jennifer shares her story while showing photos of Joel and her family.
“Sometimes, I speak without crying. Other times, it hits you like a brick,” she said. “But I want them to see my emotion.”
Once, after sharing her story, an older man in the audience came up to her.
“When you told me about your dad and his grandkids, it made me think of my grandkids,” he said, with tears in his eyes.
Moments like this are why Jennifer continues to speak out and carry the hope that things can change in Idaho—that people will choose not to drive impaired.
“You need to know that we’re not invincible,” she said. “With Uber, Lyft, taxis, friends, family—there’s no excuse for impaired driving.”
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Zavala and Firebird Raceway.
Impaired driving crash data from the Idaho Transportation Department’s 2023 Crash Report.
Learn more about what you can do, here.
