Stop Drunk Driving Continued

I wasn't ready to publish the last blog about drunk driving, I just wanted to save it, but it looks like when you save it, it also is submitted. I will re-paste the beginning of what I said before because I was kind of on a roll (and there were a few mistakes). :)

With high school prom time here some already done, drunk driving is a hot-button issue, but it should always be a hot-button issue in South Carolina because we are ranked 51 on the list of highest DUI (Driving Under the Influence) fatalities in the United States! 

Dateline NBC aired a eye-opening segment on their "My Kid Would Never Do That" program last week.  For those of you who did not see it, the show set up a "food tasting project" with about six high school students sitting around a table in the school.  One of the students was an actor who had a bottle in his hand and was bragging that he was high.  This was a real-life test to see if the students would ride with the "drunk" teenager after the adult in charge of the test (an NBC Producer) selected that student to drive them to a restaurant.  The teens parents were in another room, watching this on tape.  It was rattling, but not a total surprise that all of the students got in the van and stayed in and the van drove off.  There were two other scenarios, one with the planted guy saying he was drunk, and the parents of one student said her daughter's uncle had been killed by a drunk driiver.  There were some objections with that group, but they all got in the van which drove in a half circle back in front of the school where their parents were waiting with disappointed looks.  The parents in both cases got teary-eyed that their kids could have died if this situation was real and hugged their children, but were quite stern and discussed how upset they were about their teen's decisions.  The third test of the teens included an actor/plant who refused to get in the car.  Some of the students joined with him, not walking to the car, and when the car alarm went off while they were approaching, the other students decided not to get in, either.  There were sighs of relief all around for the parents.

It is scary to see how peer pressure effects teenagers, even when one or two are initially concerned, then decide to follow the others into a deadly situation.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has an excellent program called "Power of Parents," that presents excellent information for parents to use when speaking to their teenagers about drinking, drinking and driving, and riding with a drunk driver.  You can request a handbook at www.madd.org.  On the home page, just select the "Underage Drinking" tab, or click on the green "Parent Initiative"s and "Underage Drinking" blocks and you will see the latest research, information and suggestions on talking with your teens.

The other issue that is making headlines in the effort to prevent drunk driving is the Ignition Interlock system.  You may have seen reports on our Midlands news stations yesterday on the press conference in the SC Capital building where Senator Joel Lourie and Representative Joan Brady urged support of their bills: Senate Bill 746, and H 4294, which would require a hand-held the breath-measuring device to be installed in the cars of all convicted drunk drivers. The offenders ignition would not work if they register a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .02 or higher.  The current determinator of DUI in South Carolina is a BAC of .08 or higher.

I started working with families of DUI victims, and badly injured DUI survivors five years ago when I was hired on the staff of MADDSC. I was laid off when donations fell during the big financial downfall at that time, but no hard feelings.  I still work on the SC office website, help with lobbying and support them any way I can! 

You can check out what our South Carolina office is working on at www.madd.org/sc, and donate locally by writing South Carolina on the checks, money orders or credit card forms you send through the donation link. Let's help MADD with their mission to: Stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking!

That's what I wanted to say.  Have a great day! :)