Each year about 16000 lives are taken due to alcohol related accidents. Every half hour someone is killed due to an alcohol related accident. Alcohol is a factor in almost 50% of all accidents. Every other minute someone is seriously injured in an alcohol related crash.
Think about those numbers in the time it took me to write this article 1 person was killed due to an alcohol related accident. In the time it took me to write those facts above 1 person was seriously injured in an alcohol related crash. Based on those statistics think about this right now it is 12:30pm EST, what time is now while you read this? Now how many half hours have passed between those times? That number (based on the US Dept of Transportation) is the number of people killed due to alcohol related accidents. Bet you never realized that did you.
I have been in LE work for close to 9 years and during that span I have seen many families ruined by the selfish act of one individual who makes the conscientious decision to get in a car a drive while under the influence of alcohol. I say conscientious because before you decided to go out that night/day while completely sober you were completely aware of the consequences associated with your actions should you choose to drink and drive (operate under the influence of an intoxicant).
Let’s look at one situation… and see what exactly this gets you. For starters you’re down a vehicle and out a bunch of money, which is actually the least of your worries (or should be). Take for example last night’s scenario…
You one male individual (maybe a successful and good person) went out with a group of friends thinking that was a good way to have a good time. Shortly after supposedly having this good time you make a decision (a conscientious decision) to turn that car on and drive to wherever. Most surely thinking “it will never happen to me”.
Ok now you are driving down the road and because you are so plastered you fail to see a red light at the intersection. You pile through that intersection and just at that time is another car that is also driving through the intersection and is occupied by three females (maybe they are friends of yours or even family who knows). BOOM! In the blink of an eye YOU have just taken the life of one person and seriously injured two others!
Four families will now live with the decision you made. Yes I said four because unfortunately now your family to must live with the burden that YOU KILLED SOMEONE!
Lights and sirens… emergency personnel are responding in the middle of the night,
only to end of having a Police Officer visit three families in the middle of the night one of which he or she will have tell that their daughter/mother is dead. Owe and yes they are also coming to help you.
Now after finally getting you out of your mangled vehicle you are rushed off to the hospital where the doctor is paged and now has to leave her family and spend the entire night trying to fix you! She then after hours and hours of putting you back together so that another life is not taken ends up having to take a strong medication to cure her migraine that she know has from getting no sleep.
Every one of those emergency responders, doctors and medical staff that treated you and tried to revive the three girls will also forever live with that decision you made.
So how cool was that night?! Bet you wished you had learned from the thousands of other selfish individuals who made that same decision.
We can only pray for the families of those three girls and yes we will pray for your family as well.
My personal opinion is that is that you spend the rest of your life behind bars or a good chunk of it contemplating that decision you made.
While I don’t know you I only hope that you did not have children or a wife that to would have to forever live with your decision and possibly without their dad.
God will forgive you and people do change BUT that decision you made is forever etched in stone. One person will never have another day here and you did that!
If you are reading this and have made the same decision this guy did but have by the grace of God not killed anyone please learn from this guy... if you are reading this and now someone who drinks and drives forward this to them.
By Paul Bodenhamer (LE Officer and husband of ER Physician)
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