CHS Grad Drives Home Dangers of Drunk Driving

Randy Tapp remembers the last thing his wife said to her under-age son as he walked out the door on New Year’s Eve 2007. “Good choices,” she reminded him as he headed for a party with friends.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry,’” Randy Tapp recalled. “He sent us a text message at midnight: ‘Happy New Year.’ Then we got the phone call at 4:30 that no parents want to get.”

Ryan Tapp’s life was forever altered that night when he drove his SUV the wrong way down I-84 after partying with his friends at Central Connecticut State University. No one tried to stop him or take his keys. 

“No one even knew I left,” said Tapp, 24, a 2006 Cheshire High School graduate and ex-Marine reservist. 

Five people were hurt when Tapp’s SUV slammed head-on into a car and then crashed into another around 3 a.m. on  Jan. 1, 2008. Tapp, the only one severely injured, suffered a traumatic brain injury and wasn’t expected to make it through the night.

After three weeks in a coma, months of rehabilitation and nine months in prison, Tapp now speaks around the state about the consequences of drinking and driving.

He shared his story with the Cheshire community Wednesday night in Town Council Chambers as part of Cheshire’s 5th Annual Alcohol Awareness Week, sponsored by the Cheshire Human Services Committee and Cheshire Youth and Social Services.

Tapp said he started drinking regularly when he was a sophomore in high school. He said he did it “because all my friends did it. I didn’t want to stay home on Saturday night, so I went to parties.”

“I’m the prime example of ‘its not going to happen to me.’ That’s what I always thought,” Tapp said. “Thank God I didn’t kill anyone for all the times I drank and drove.”

Tapp drove home his point with a slideshow showing photographs of his mangled car as well as pictures of himself at the party before the accident juxtaposed with a photograph of him in the hospital 10 days later, with various tubes attached to his body.

“They drilled a hole in my head,” Tapp said, “which is a lot better than having to cut part of my skull off, which they were thinking about.”

During his many months of rehab, he had to re-learn how to talk and walk. Simply lifting up his head was arduous.

Ryan’s mother, Nancy, said a social worker suggested that she start looking for a nursing home. But Tapp  stunned doctors with his progress and was able to go home about six weeks after the crash. Still, the days ahead remained a challenge.

“When he came home from the hospital he couldn’t carry on a conversation with us. He knew who I was, but he just couldn’t process things at all,” his mother said.

Tapp said he continues to struggle with the lasting effects of his injury. He suffers from leg tremors and has difficulty with memory and focus. In his classes at Tunxis Community College, he has to work extra hard just to get a C.

His lifelong dream of being a Marine was cut short because he can’t risk another head injury. On court order, he must blow into a breathalyzer attached to his car ignition each time he gets behind the wheel.

Nancy Tapp, who with her husband runs a 12-step program called Celebrate Recovery at her church in Middlefield, called on parents to take a hard line against permitting drinking in their homes, even if they plan to collect their teenagers’ car keys.

 “When they take away the keys they give a false sense of security that someone’s going to watch out for them,” she said. “In college, no one is watching or in a position to take away the keys.”

Editor's note: Alcohol awareness week is held each year the week before the Junior Prom, which is Saturday night from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Villa Rosa in Waterbury. 

Cheshire's Human Service Committee will have a display about alcohol awareness at the Home, Garden and Business Expo on Saturday from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. at Cheshire High School.

Cheshire High School SADD students will be distributing brown bags with safe driving messages to local package stores today and Friday.  The bags were made as part of a SADD activity at B1Day.  For more information please contact SADD advisor: Kim Vesper kvesper@cheshirect.org
 

For more information on underage drinking, contact Human Services Chairwoman Meredith Sturges at 272-0205, Slyma48@yahoo.com , Michelle Piccerillo, Youth and Social Services Department – 271-6690 or visit www.CheshireCares.org