Dean Cain stars in 'Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness', Sunday on CBS.

People describe the life-altering moment as a hideous feeling that overtook them, and they knew.

They knew that their loved ones had just died.

Bruce Murakami suffered such a moment November 16, 1998. Then a contractor, he drove home for lunch in Tampa, Florida, with his wife and daughter. He needed papers he had left at home, and after lunch, his wife and daughter were heading to the market in a mall.

Murakami forgot the papers and doubled back, and when he returned, they were gone. Within minutes, they would be gone forever.

Cindy and Chelsea were leaving the mall in their minivan when teenagers, drag racing, plowed into them. They were killed instantly. Moments afterward, Murakami came upon the scene.

Dean Cain (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) turns in a remarkable performance as Murakami in the Hallmark movie Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness on CBS tomorrow.

"I hope that people are touched by the story and that it attracts some attention to the dangers," Cain says, "and that it can save some lives and it does. If one kid watches it and says he will drive differently, then OK, that will make me happy."

Were this a tale of their senseless deaths, that would be dreadful but not much of a movie. Instead, what makes this gripping rather than maudlin is what Murakami did.

A whole different spin

He forgave the teen whose idiocy killed his family. Then he began educating young drivers about the dangers of drag racing. And, he does so with the young man who killed his family.

Students listen.

"For the most part, you get a little bit of a gasp," Murakami says. "Then it gets deathly quiet. It was just an idea that came to my mind. I know of people going into schools; EMTs and police officers speak to them, but this is a whole different spin."

The numbers dealing with teen drivers are shocking. Teenage drivers account for 6.3 per cent of the almost 200 million licensed drivers in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Yet 12.6 per cent ofthe drivers in fatal crashes are teens, according to the NHTSA.

Like all crime statistics, behind the numbers are devastated survivors. Though Murakami had two older sons, a home and business to tend to in the wake of the accident, he dissolved into himself. Cain makes the audience feel that with his simmering rage.

"When I was reading the script, I was thinking, 'Jeez, can I handle doing this?' To think it was a real person doing this, that just completely rocked me. My first thought was, 'Wow that's insane. What an incredible story. Can I emotionally handle doing this?' My stomach was in knots by the end of it. It was very well-directed. John Kent Harrison (the director) made all the difference. You don't want to trivialise it."

Murakami says the film is so spot-on that he had to keep pausing while watching.

Initially, police said Cindy, Murakami's wife, was at fault; that she just zoomed into traffic while on the phone. But Murakami knew that was not true, and he had just spoken to their daughter on the cell, so Cindy was not on the phone.

Then, as it comes to light that some kids were drag racing, Murakami knows he must go after the drivers. He is intent on hiring a very smart lawyer, Erin (Peri Gilpin, Frasier), but she rebuffs him because this isn't her sort of case and she is swamped.

Terrorist attacks

Eventually, Erin takes his case and proves that drag racers indeed were responsible. Murakami found himself facing his family's killer on September 11, 2001, though at the time of the first hearing, Murakami says no one in the courtroom knew about the terrorist attacks.

Expecting to find a sleazy kid without a conscience, he instead encounters Justin (Shiloh Fernandez), who is devastated. Murakami and Justin, 17, meet alone, at Murakami's request. Justin's sobs rack his body, and he can't form words. When he finally can talk, all he can say is how sorry he is.

Another powerful scene is when Murakami asks the judge to have Justin work with him rather than wither away in jail.Much of the dialogue is taken directly from court records, Murakami says.

"I absolutely forgive him," Murakami says of Justin. "I forgave him a year after it happened."

A religious man, he says he had to forgive, or "I would have been the third victim in this."

Still, his life as he had known it was over. He spent a year gazing at the water, working on his tan and contemplating what to do with the rest of his life. He formed a non-profit agency to raise awareness about the dangers of drag racing. For more on Murakami's work, visit his website at www.safeteendriver.org.

This movie is so well-done, and so important, parents really ought to watch it with newly minted drivers.

"What I sincerely hope is that kids start to understand how dangerous it is to do drag racing - when they get behind the wheel, how they could easily take someone's life," Cain says. "The other part of the story is to take a tragedy like that, that Bruce underwent, and to be able to forgive and create something positive out of an absolute horrific nightmare scenario.

"I don't know how. I don't know if I could react the same way. It could also draw awareness to his organisation. It has already changed how I am going to be raising my son when it comes time to teach him to drive. I am already working with him on how to drive. He's about to turn seven. I teach him on the ranch; I have 40 acres. I teach him about steering and safety."

- Jacqueline Cutler, Zap2it