DUI Impact - driving under the influence of alcohol

You already read the headline. You already know drinking and driving is bad. But have you ever had a drunk driver slam into you?

No? It's a train that crashes through your living room, destroying your life.

Drinking and driving changed my friend. She physically lived through the accident, but a drunk driver killed her sister, Mo. While my friend Kelly watched, Mo's body was torn apart.

"I'm not that drunk." That's what Kelly said the guy driving the car said.

Kelly and three others were in two cars, one behind the other, at night on the shoulder of a major highway. They were home on leave in New Jersey for Christmas and had just picked up Mo from the airport. They needed two vehicles to carry the luggage.

Then it happened ... a flat tire.

Kelly's brother-in-law, Bob, was lying on the ground, jacking the truck up to change the tire. Kelly was in the cab of the truck. Her other sister was in the rear car, while Mo stood over Bob, between the two cars.

The drunk driver tried to pass a car on the right, thinking the shoulder was a lane. He was too impaired to realize it wasn't. He was too impaired to see the cars parked on the shoulder in front of him.

"I'm not that drunk." But he was.

He slammed into the rear car, which pole-vaulted forward into the truck, landing on top of Bob and crushing Mo.

When you've been drinking, you may think you're not that drunk. You may think you have a high tolerance for alcohol. But the legal blood alcohol content level is there because alcohol affects your motor skills and reflex ability.

The drunk driver that slammed through Kelly and Mo's life didn't think he was drunk, but he was well above the limit.

He thought he was being responsible by taking a nap for an hour before driving. It is a farce to think a short rest will rid your body of the alcohol. Instead, he killed a young, vibrant girl and ruined a close-knit family with his bad judgment.

He had been drinking at a fraternity party and was going home. He didn't want to leave his car and have to go back the next day. He didn't have a plan.

When you go out and drink, have a designated driver. But what if you don't plan on drinking and do so anyway? Take a cab. Call a friend, or walk. But don't drive.

The inconvenience of having to get your car the next day is worth it compared to what could happen by driving home.

The drunk driver who killed Mo decided to drive. And after he drove, he lay bleeding in his mangled car. Kelly got out of the truck and ran to her sister, whose body was limp -- as if all her bones crushed on impact.

While Kelly held her sister, she saw a coconut shell, rocking on the pavement not far away. She looked at her sister's face, her features out of place. Then she realized the coconut shell was the back of Mo's skull.

For this accident, the drunk driver who killed Mo went to jail for manslaughter. He got caught. But so many people think they won't get caught--quite possibly the worst excuse for drinking and driving because these people realize they shouldn't be driving in the first place.

Kelly was the one to tell her dad, who had rushed to the hospital after hearing there was an accident. "Mo's dead." It was all she could muster.

He inhaled deep, as if to fill the now hollow hole in his chest. His baby girl was gone.

I thank God I've never been directly involved in anything even close to this accident. But for months after this accident, Kelly would talk to me about this horror now burned forever in my head too.

Every time I drink now and think about driving, I can vividly see that coconut shell, rocking.

I can feel Mo's wilted body in my arms.

I can hear the sucking sound from her dad's chest.

And I don't drive home.

I plead with you to make the right decision too. Don't drink and drive.

COPYRIGHT 2002 U.S. Department of the Air Force
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group