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One Drunk Driver

One Drunk Driver

Earlier in his career, one of my partners defended drunk drivers charged with DUI and other alcohol related criminal charges. He was one of the best DUI defense attorneys in Clark County. He’s told me repeatedly that, most of the time, his clients were not monsters or horrible criminal scoundrels. Most of the time, they were just like me: responsible, middle-class, everyday moms and dads who, for whatever reason, made a stupid choice to drive after drinking. Sure, there will always be the stereotypical drunks who are on their third or fourth DUI, but most of the time that just isn’t the case.

No amount of “preaching” or “education” will stop drunk driving. If it were that easy, it would have been done long before now. My hope is to stop just one person from drinking and getting behind the wheel. Just one drunk driver. Just one person.

Drunk driving statistics are extremely troubling. Disturbing even. According to the most recent information published by the National Highway Safety Administration, 9,878 people lost their lives as a result of drunk driving in 2011. Mathematically, this works out to more than one person, every hour, of every day, of the entire year! Of those killed, 1,612 were passengers in the car of the drunk driver, 1,049 were killed as occupants in other vehicles, and 710 of those killed were pedestrians and bicyclists.

Although these numbers may seem small, I looked at my Facebook page, and learned that I have “555” friends. I wonder how many of us have even 710 Facebook friends. From this perspective, it is clear we are talking astronomically huge numbers.

Of the nearly 10,000 people killed by drunk drivers, over one third were persons other than the drunk driver. Of those persons, half were friends or family members of the drunk driver.

Assuming the drunk driver lives to pay for the consequences of his or her drunk driving, he or she must not only face criminal and civil legal proceedings, but must forever deal with the nightmare of knowing they were responsible for the death of another human being. They ended the life of a person’s spouse, or co-worker, or child. The guilt would be horrifying. Returning to the list of friends on my Facebook page, I cannot imagine losing a friend, even the remotest of them, to the drunken choices of another.

If this post stops one of you, one person, from drinking and driving I will not have written in vain. I’ve said it before on my personal blog, my own reach is only so broad. Share this message with your friends, and your colleagues.  With your children, and your grandparents. Post it on Facebook. Stop your friends from drinking and driving. Take their keys. Be a designated driver. Call a cab. Walk.

Just don’t drink and drive or allow anyone else to drink and drive. If we turn back to the statistics above, each of those killed lost their life to a single drunk driver. If we can stop one of them, one drunk driver, we may save the life of one of his or her future victims. It only takes one.

Just one drunk driver.

Just one person.

Scott Edwards is a resident of Ridgefield and a partner at the Vancouver law firm of Schauermann Thayer Jacobs Staples & Edwards PS. His practice focuses exclusively on representing persons injured by the carelessness of others. In addition to his work with Vancouver Family Magazine, he has authored a safety blog entitled "Make Safe" where he has written about topics aimed at making our communities safer.

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