Don’t Drink And Drive This New Year’s Eve – Here Is The Cost If You Do

Two people were killed in a horrific drunk driving crash on Executive Center and Mesa on December 28, 2011. Seven years ago, a young girl was killed at the intersection of Montana and Hawkins as she sat in her car at a red light. Just a few days ago on Christmas Eve, 3 people were killed when a drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned the vehicle they were riding in. All those dead people, all those families shattered, all because a few people decided to drive drunk.

I watched out the windows of the KISS studios for eight hours the morning of December 28th as a young girl's dead body lay out on Mesa. Police had to conduct an investigation into the crash in which she was killed, and her body couldn't be moved until they were finished. Her family had to bear the news of her death, and the fact that their daughter was lying in the road covered up by a white sheet as people passed by in their cars for eight hours.

The scary thing is, that crash could have happened to anyone.  We have all gone out partying, drunk too much, showed off in a car for our friends. It’s only the luck of the draw that we made it safely home. When you have kids, you know they'll likely do the same thing, and you want to impress on them how important it is to NOT do those things without sounding like a fuddy duddy.

I used to tell my kids starting when they were very young and I was worried about “stranger danger”, that Target doesn’t have a “Ryan” or “Sam” department. I can’t just go out and replace them if they were lost. I told Ryan the same thing when he left on all three of his deployments to Iraq, and I told Sam that when he left to Austin to go to college.

I also told them I can't fix dead. I can fix a ticket by paying it, I can go bail you out of jail, I can even go pick you up if you call me and tell me you can’t drive or you’re afraid to get into a car with a friend who has been drinking too much. But I can’t fix dead. I can’t bring you back to life by offering mine to God. All I could do if you make the tragic decision to drink and drive, or get into a car with someone who has been drinking, and you die, is stand by your grave and cry bitter, devastated, unending tears of grief. I won’t ever be the same. Your grandparents might not be able to weather your loss. Your aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, everyone you know will walk with stooped shoulders from the weight of regret at your lost life.

I can’t fix dead – neither can anyone else. Please, please, please, don’t drink and drive. Do whatever it takes to stop your kids from drinking and driving. And if you are planning on going out, do the right thing - call a cab, get a hotel room, be an adult and don't get behind the wheel if you've had anything to drink.