According to SADD.org over thirty percent of people between the ages of twelve and twenty years of age, had their last drink, or binge at another persons home. The parents of these drunken juveniles are usually working, or are more interested in their own personal lives than those of their own children.
Granted there are single parents that work long hours to support their children, and cannot be home when their children are out of school. The fact remains that long distant or absentee parenting is not working with all the temptations of alcohol and drugs currently.
Just like with child predators meeting the sons and daughters of many Houston area families online while the parents are consumed with other activities or work. The lack of supervision lets all non-productive influences move into a pre-teen or teenagers life.
A child left to their own instruction will usually seek the affection of anyone who will show interest in them. Once this transition occurs, the parent loses much or all influence over their son or daughter’s lives. This may in the form of a friend’s parent allowing them to drink after school, and then allowing them to get back behind the wheel of an automobile and navigate their auto home under the influence of alcohol.
Teen drunk drivers are much more prone to having a drunk driving accident because their reaction times and judgment are more so impaired than that of a 21-50 year old, and are more likely to be involved in car accidents that end in single or multiple fatalities from crashing their vehicles while drunk.
Many parents may read this, and become enraged from being accused of neglecting their kid’s while trying to earn a living for the very same children. The fact remains that the mother, and father are responsible for the actions of their children, and it is up to them to make the appropriate changes to prevent teen drunk driving.
Reaching out to Alcoholics Anonymous or another group for guidance on trying to help raise a sober child will be a good solid first step to take, and it might be necessary to change careers in order to be able to supervise, and raise your children in a more healthy, and productive environment.
There are also other non-profit organizations such MADD to get help and tips for parents with teens who may be drinking.
DWI- Dont Do It
Drinking and driving has deadly consequences – and more often than not it is the innocent and unsuspecting driver who loses his or her life – not the drunk driver.
Take a reported story of fellow just into his early twenties and add ten beers to his blood stream. Put him behind the wheel of his pick-up and hold your breath as he attempts to navigate on the open highway. ONLY he heads off in the wrong direction driving on the wrong side of the highway. WRONG WAY drivers often are the cause of catastrophic accidents and this case was no exception.
The young man’s truck slammed into a tanker on a highway and the result was an explosion and fireball that lit up the sky for miles. The truck driver was killed in this horrific collision.
The drunk driver is behind bars having miraculously escaping with HIS life.
The news report quotes the driver who caused the accident as being ‘real sorry’. He was further quoted as saying he knew he’d caused ‘a real bad accident’.
The tanker driver had spoken to his wife on the phone only moments before the accident that claimed his life. He’d told her he had a couple more deliveries and would then be on his way home.
Even in the retelling of this incident it is difficult to decide whether it is more gut-wrenching or heart-wrenching. The man leaves behind 3 children as well. It is difficult to imagine losing your loved one at all – let alone in a conflagration caused by negligence and ignorance.
A driver who is intoxicated and causes a wrongful death of another can be assured that the world as they know it is about to change drastically.
Don’t, don’t, don’t drink and drive.
Drunk Driving Accident Statistics
Drinking and driving is the number one cause of vehicle fatalities in this country.
Even with increased laws on the books intended to curb drunk driving – upwards of 43% of car and truck deaths occur because of a drunk driver.
Consider the following scenarios which – although arguably quite gruesome – when shared with friends and family they may prove to be the best deterrent against intoxicated driving.
The sad truth about drunk driving and children is that two-thirds of children who are killed in auto accidents are in a vehicle in which the driver has been drinking. Another truism of alcohol mixing with driving is that September is the deadliest month for college students as they get back into the swing of binge drinking and driving.
Grievous circumstances in which a death occurred because a driver was drinking includes a story about an intoxicated father who ran over his own child near his home while the seven year old girl was walking the family dog.
Equally as unsettling is a case of one brother witnessing the accidental death of his other brother at the hands of a drunk driver. In yet another case a man was sentenced to a little less than twenty years of hard time in prison for a drunk driving accident that left an unborn child dead.
Take a cab, get a designated driver, walk or stay in a hotel. Don’t drink and drive.