Clang, clang, clang…I didn’t set that alarm…what’s going on? I don’t know if I said that, or thought it but in the fog that is 2 in the morning, I didn’t know what I was hearing.
The ringing didn’t stop.
“Oh, it’s the phone! Oh, yeah!” I said, fumbling at my bedside for the phone. “Hello” I mumbled, gummy-mouthed. I heard, “It’s me, Jade. There’s been an accident.”
Those words started the roller coaster of change, the ordeal of worry, the tears of sadness, that continue to this day.
A drunk driver ran a red light, crashing into the side of an automobile, slamming into the left side of the other driver’s car, damaging him and his family forever.
The drunk driver was underage—she shouldn’t have been able to get alcohol—but she did. She has a story, a reason for why she got drunk and got behind the wheel of a car.
But her story really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make up for what she did or what the person who supplied her with alcohol did. It doesn’t make up for the lack of any real action on the part of the justice system—the fact that this wasn’t her first drunk driving violation! The fact that her punishment for this crime was a joke. We can ask where her parents were, why they didn’t keep a better eye on their child, teach their child right from wrong. But in the end, the result is the same…Her actions shattered the lives of three innocent people.
National Impaired Driving Prevention Month
This is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. What is “impaired driving”? According to the US Department of Transportation, it means, “operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.” Other definitions include driving while under the influence of legal and illegal medications and drugs.
So what do surveys say about driving under the influence? The 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) gives some information from US residents on their driving habits. The Centers for Disease Control’s summary or this survey was that 18.5 million reported driving under the influence of alcohol (7.2% of respondents ages 16 years and older), 11.7 million reported driving under the influence of marijuana (4.5% of respondents ages 16 years and older), and 2.4 million reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs other than marijuana (0.9% of respondents ages 16 years and older). Along with alcohol, marijuana is also becoming a problem with people who use marijuana being “about 25 percent more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers with no evidence of marijuana use.“
The number of deaths caused by drunk drivers in the US is around 10.5K per year, that’s about one person every 50 minutes according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. This is horrible and the loss of those people’s lives devastates families and whole communities.
But there are other statistics. Injuries to the impaired drivers themselves and to innocent bystanders like other drivers, occupants of the involved vehicles. These injuries can include brain damage, broken bones, spinal injuries that can paralyze or cause long lasting back pain, or damage to other internal organs that cause long-term problems interfering with the ability to work, PTSD and more. In fact, “every day about 800 people are injured in a drunk-driving crash.” According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) “2 in every 3 people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime.” That’s a big problem and the injuries last a lifetime.
As one of the innocent victims of an impaired, drunk driver, I can honestly say there is no restitution that can bring back what that young woman took from my family.
Please do not drink or take medication or drugs and drive a vehicle. You can destroy so much when you do.
