We've all been there. We're out for a few drinks with friends, a little tipsy, when it's closing time and time to go. "I'm fine to drive," you say to yourself. You get to your car and think, "it's only a short drive home. It's fine."
It's not fine.
Driving drunk is the most selfish decision anyone could ever make. If you are drinking, find a ride. Call someone. A friend. A cab. Call me. Do not get behind the wheel. Your decision could take away someone's mom, dad, friend, daughter, son. What gives anyone the right to be so selfish to make a hole in someone else's family so that you don't have to call a cab?
Personally, I have lost a grandmother and a friend to drinking and driving. I cannot tell you how many of my friends and family have lost someone to drinking and driving. Both the people I lost, were not the ones driving.
My grandmother, whom I have never met, was killed by a drunk driver on New Year's Eve. She was taken from my mother, only 4 years old, my uncle, and my grandfather. I have learned who she was through stories and pictures, but there is never a day that goes by that I don't feel sick to my stomach that I never got to meet her. That she never got to see her children grow up. Though my family has forgiven the person who hit my grandparents that night, the hole that that driver created in my family's hearts will never go away. All because he thought it was "fine."
I never want to have to get a phone call saying that someone I love won't be coming home because they or someone else thought it was "fine". I never want to have to console a friend because they lost someone important to them because of drinking and driving. It is just so easily avoided. Such a high price to pay for something you could just as soon not do.
I don't know how to rationalize drinking and driving when it has led to so many deaths. How can you ever think that "it's fine" when you could potentially kill someone? That's like taking a gun and shooting it in a random direction. Could you potentially miss everything? Sure. Or you could injure or kill someone too.
There are so many other options. Call a cab, call a friend, call a family member.
I have NEVER been mad when someone woke me up asking for a ride. Every 3 a.m. phone call from a friend or family member needing a ride was a blessing. That phone call is so much better than a phone call telling me you won't ever be calling me again. Please call someone.
To the friends of people who drink and drive. Stop them. Take their keys, call the cops, stop them. It might be tough love but I promise you would rather make them angry for a night than never see them again. Or know that you didn't stop them and they hurt someone else.
"According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 33,561 people died in traffic crashes in 2012 in the United States (latest figures available), including an estimated 10,076 people who were killed in drunk driving crashes involving a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater). Among the people killed in these drunk driving crashes, 65% were drivers (6,688), 27% were motor vehicle occupants (2,824), and 8% were non-occupants (810)."
I hope one day that these numbers drop so low that we hardly ever hear about a drinking and driving accident. I hope one day to never have to attend another memorial service for a young person who thought they were "fine." I hope I never have to look on Facebook to see the memorial pictures of a mom or dad taken from their children by someone who was "fine." It isn't fine. Know your limit and be responsible. This isn't something to take lightly. If you don't care about yourself then care about the other people on the road. Don't make them or their family pay for your choices.
So the next time you go out and drink—at a bar, at someone's house, on a tailgate, at a wedding, wherever it is—be responsible. It's not fine. Call a ride. Everyone wants their families to make it home safe.
A lot of states have some type of DD/ride home numbers you can call! Most of them at little to no cost. Here are a couple different registries.
http://duijusticelink.aaa.com/for-the-public/aaas-...
http://www.drinkinganddriving.org/designated-drive...
