All too often do we hear on the news stories of drunk drivers.

Regardless of age, drunk driving has become an extremely dangerous and prominent issue within our world. The scariest part is, the drivers are our friends, our neighbors and our family members.

Every time these people get in their cars they are potentially ruining their lives and the lives of others. Selfishly depriving a young child the rest of their life, a young girl a beautiful wedding day, a young boy his dreams of the NFL.

Depriving a mother the chance to see her children graduate, a father who will never see his son win a championship game. And maybe, just maybe, killing their friend or family member, a passenger in their car who thought they were sober enough to drive them home.

We, as a society, have the power to end it all. Stop being the passengers in these cars. Stop allowing our drunk friends to drive themselves home. Stop being afraid to call our parents at late hours of the night because we're afraid they'll be mad at us. No amount of fear is worth losing your life or potentially taking someone else's.

In a twitter poll I conducted, 63 percent of poll-takers said that they have driven drunk or gotten in the car with someone even after they were aware of their intoxication.

These results shocked me.

We react to these tragedies with sadness and grief, yet we keep allowing ourselves to become just another one of them. The statistics are mind-boggling.

Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash. In the year 2013, 28.7 million people admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol, a number higher than the population of Texas. Every day in our country, 27 people die as a result of a drunk driving accident. Stop allowing yourself to become just another statistic and stand up for your life. Make the 3 a.m. phone call to your mother, stay at a friend's house for the night, take your friend's keys away from them.

I've seen my community shaken by these incidents. Heartbreaking news that a friend, at the tender age of 18 has been charged with a DUI. A teacher who explains the sadness when she is informed that she will never speak to her student again.

A daughter who will never again be able to ask her parents how their day was. A son and a friend who won't make it home from college to tell his younger siblings how fun it was to live independently. A classroom of children, forced to fathom that their favorite friend at the playground was taken from them because someone made the decision to drive their car while under the influence of alcohol.

Out of these situations, we learn.

We learn to be wiser, we learn to appreciate life, and we learn to teach. Drinking is inevitable. We will never stop underage drinking at parties or adults drinking at sporting events and bars. But what we can stop is what we do after those events. Take turns being the designated driver. Vow to your friends that you'll pick them up from that party, regardless of what time it is.

Let your friend sleep at your house because you know they aren't in the condition to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. The tiniest decisions will make the biggest impact. All of us have the power to end drunk driving. Think about your friends and family. Life is too precious to continuously risk it.