what a horrible story. To answer your question: drivers are not going to wake up. For each guy like the driver in this story, there are hundreds of others.
Sorry, it's true. a person on a 25 lb bike is no match for a pickup truck.
and drivers are going to continue to run red lights, forget to look both ways,
forget to signal. It is human nature. the only thing that we can hope to change is human sentiment, and right now a lot of work could be done to improve the way a lot of folks look at bicyclists. But this is truly not what happened here. The guy was being careless, and didn't have great driving skills.

I hope your friends heal and go on to ride again. I know that their insurance company will go after the guy and get every possible dime.

good luck, i'm sorry.