Excess
intake of alcohol can cause intoxication or even death, for example, by
binge drinking. Other damage can include:
Changes
in blood chemistry, resulting in loss of myelin coating around nerves
Cirrhosis of
the liver, impairing the liver's ability to cleanse the blood of waste
products
Respiratory
depression & low blood pressure
Memory impairment
& unable to learn new information
Suppresses
immune system, making alcoholics susceptible to pneumonia & tuberculosis
Increased risk
of bladder, prostate and colon cancer
Withdrawal
symptoms: DTs, extreme body shaking, insomnia, confusion, hallucinations,
seizures etc.
MADD'S 2003
SUMMARY OF STATISTICS
In 2002, an
estimated 17,417 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes - an average
of one every 30 minutes.
In 2001, more
than half a million people were injured in crashes where police reported
that alcohol was present - an average of one person injured almost every
minute.
For fatal crashes
occurring from midnight to 3:00 AM, 79% involved alcohol.
About three
in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at
some time in their lives.
The impact
on alcohol involvement increase with injury severity. Alcohol-involved
crashes accounted for 10% of property damage only crash costs, 21% of nonfatal
injury costs and 46% of fatal injury crash costs.
Drunk driving
is the nation's most frequently committed violent crime, killing someone
every 30 minutes.
There is a wealth
of information on the MADD web site: ww.madd.org. The 2003 summary
includes information on Alcohol Advertising, Arrests & Convictions
for Driving Under the Influence, Occupant Protection, Young Drivers (15-20
years old), Youth Drinking (Under 21), Minimum Drinking Age Laws, Costs
of Alcohol Related Crashes plus several pages of resources.
JACQUELINE
SABURIDO
Early one morning
in September 1999, Jacqui - then 20 years old - and four friends were on
their way home from a birthday party, Reggie Stephey, an 18-year-old high
school student, was on his way home from drinking beer with some buddies.
On the dark road on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Reggie's SUV veered
into the Oldsmobile carrying Jacqui and the others. Two passengers
in the car were killed and two were rescued.
Within minutes,
the car caught fire, Jacqui was pinned in the front seat on the passenger
side. She was burned over 60% of her body; no one thought she would
survive. But Jacqui lived. Her hands were so badly burned that
all of her fingers had to be amputated. She lost her hair, her ears,
her nose, her left eyelid and much of her vision. She has had more
than 50 operations since the crash and has many more to go.
In June 2001,
Reggie Stephey was convicted of two counts of intoxication manslaughter
for the deaths of Jacqui's two friends. He was sentenced to seven
years in prison and fined $20,000.
Jacqui has
courageously lent her story and her face to a statewide anit-DWI campaign
in Texas in hopes that her experience will deter people from drinking and
driving. She is featured in TV public service announcements etc.
produced by the Texas Department of Transportation.
Jacqui's medical
bills are staggering and she has no health insurance. A special account
has been established to help defray some of her living expenses and medical
bills. If you would like to help you can send a donation to:
Help Jacqui
PO Box 27667
Austin, TX
78755
|
|
|
Jacqui
~ 09/19/99
|
Jacqui
Now!
|
Jacqui's story
can be found on any website search. We used http://www.helpjacqui.com.
We use a PowerPoint presentation of Jacqui's tragedy to show that sometimes,
a car accident can result in your being almost worse off than dying.
The above
will give you the numbers for your state by year.
MOTOR
VEHICLE INJURIES
MECKLENBURG
COUNTY - 2000
|
| Race/Sex |
Total |
Infant |
6-9 |
10-14 |
15-19 |
20-24 |
25-29 |
30-35 |
White
Male |
18
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
7
|
7
|
3
|
White
Female |
7
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
Minority
Male |
13
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
Minority
Female |
6
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
| Total |
44
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
8
|
10
|
13
|
11
|
The above is
from the NC State Center for Health Statistics for the year 2000 in Mecklenburg
County, which is where Charlotte is located. If you live in NC, you
can obtain the same type statistics for your county. Statistics can
give you the scope of the problem, but they don't convey the personal emotions
of the loss. Let's look at a story that does.
THE STORY
OF JERRY'S SONS
My only two
sons were killed October 26, 1990 in a car accident. I was unable
to sleep after the policeman came at 3:00 AM to let us know officially
that the accident we saw on the 11 PM News was our sons: Leon Jonas Jr.
& Wayne Jonas. I got up at 6:00 AM and called the Medical Examiner's
office to find out if they were going to do an autopsy like the TV news
report said.
The main question
that kept playing over and over in my mind was, "Why did Leon Jr. make
a U-turn on Interstate 77 on a busy Friday night?" We had just seen
our sons two hours before at home and they had been drinking.
Earlier we
were on our way home from eating out when we saw an accident but we did
not know it was our sons until later. We also didn't know they had
picked up a friend who wanted some pot. Wayne drove over to get the
friend and the pot; Leon Jr. drove back. On the way back, for some
unknown reason, Leon Jr. made a U-turn, skidded as he crossed the muddy
median and a truck hit them from behind, killing all three.
Thank God the
newspaper did not say anything the next day about the possibility of alcohol
involvement. I really felt ashamed that my son was a drunk driver.
I did not want anyone to know. An autopsy wasn't done, just test
for blood alcohol. Leon Jr's was 0.17%, Wayne's was 0.11% and their
friend's was 0.23%. The report came months after the car crash.
Besides feeling
ashamed, I also felt a lot of guilt over their deaths for a long time.
I felt responsible since I did not stay home that night and keep them talking.
I felt I should have taken Leon Jr's keys away from him. Because
of the quilt I was feeling, I decided to work with MADD in the hopes of
at least saving another child's life. In 1994, me the mother of a
drunk driver, received the MADD Volunteer of the Year Award.
I also became
angry at Leon Jr. for causing not only his death but the death of his brother
and their friend. I finally had to use a therapy I had heard about.
I put Leon Jr's picture in a chair and told him why I was angry at him
and then I forgave him. I knew that I had to let go of the anger
or it would 'eat me up.'
But I also
had anger at God for allowing it to happen, especially to me. I was
faithfully serving Him and this crash made me feel like a bad mother.
I felt people would judge me by my sons car crash. I stayed in church
but had a hard time going because if I had tears, I though people would
think my children were in hell. I had raised them in church their
whole lives and both has accepted Christ as Savior.
I finally realized
that my thoughts about being a bad mother, my anger with God for not taking
care of my family were coming from the devil. He knows we are in
grief and uses that to draw us away from God. One thought I had often
was sorrow over the fact that Leon Jr. had never married and had children.
I realized the devil was using this thought to bring me down further.
I finally forgave
God and asked for His forgiveness; I've even grown closer to Him than ever
before. I forgave myself because I know God forgave me. I know
I can trust my sons to His care and some day I will see them again.
UNDERAGE
DRINKING
One of the
curses on our American culture is the ease with which young people start
drinking, many times encouraged by their parents. Both are unaware
or ignore the consequences. According to REDUCING UNDERAGE DRINKING:
A Collective Responsibility, published by the Institute of Medicine/National
Research Council (www.nap.edu), "Alcohol use by young people is dangerous,
not only because of the risks associated with acute impairment, but also
because of the threat to their long-term development and well being.
Traffic crashes are perhaps the most visible of these dangers, with alcohol
being implicated in nearly 1/3 of youth traffic fatalities. Underage
alcohol use is also associated with violence, suicide, educational failure...All
of these problems are magnified by early onset of teen drinking: the younger
the drinker the worse the problem. Moreover, frequent heavy drinking
by young adolescents can lead to mild brain damage.
One of MADD's
pass outs says: "The easiest place for kids to get beer...is right next
to the milk." This was surely true in my case. I (Skip) began
drinking when I was 16 years old and was a heavy drinker by the time I
reached the legal age of 21 years old. When my three oldest kids
were in the 6th, 4th & 2nd grades, I taught them how to make &
drink Manhattans, Martinis etc. After I became a Christian, I tried
to undo this. My wife Jerry relates that in her first marriage her
husband began her sons drinking beer when they were 17 years old.
A few weeks ago, we were on our way to a Sunday Schook gathering &
realized we were too early. We pulled into a shopping center &
happened to park in front of a liquor store. We cringed & wanted
to tell parents: "You don't know what you're doing."
In our county,
A Substance Abuse Indicators Action Team was formed by the County Commissioners
to determine the extent of alcohol and drug abuse in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
area. We will focus only on the alcohol portions. Roughly 30%
of those arrested for driving while impaired are under 21 years of age.
28% of fatal crashes are alcohol related. They also found:
% STUDENTS
THAT DRINK IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY
|
GRADE
|
% STUDENTS
|
|
8
|
46
|
|
10
|
56
|
|
12
|
67
|
What can be
done or is being done? Nationally, SAMHSA (Subtance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration) and MADD have teamed up to help children
and adolescents reject underage drinkink, with the TOO SMART to START program.
As part of this, the Nashville (TN) Prevention Partnership offers a Facilitators
Guide For Faith-Based Parent Training on Underage Drinking on their website.
MADD has an online course aimed at high school students, new drivers and
youth alcohol offenders; it's found at: www.outsidetheclassroom.com/MADD
Jerry &
I participate in the PARTNERS to Reduce Underage Drinking in North Carolina
(www.initiative.org). At the Annual meeting, there were presentations
by MADD, the NC Alcohol Law Enforcement, college campus groups and high
school groups.
In small group
discussions, it was asked: What have you found effective in persuading
young people to choose not to drink alcoholic drinks? Some of the
anwers were:
Kids
do better delivering the message to each other
Scaring them
only works for awhile
Have kids voluntarily
sign a pledge not to drink.
High Schoolers
in Kinston NC, with the help of local merchants, came up with a 12-page
newspaper for distribution in their county; it covers almost everything.
For a free copy, go to www.kinston.com and click on Education/NIE.
WHAT DOES
THE BIBLE SAY
After my conversion
to Christ, I (Skip) became a teetotaler. When associating with Christians
from Euorpe, I was shocked when I found most drank a glass of wine frequently.
After doing some research, I found that the Bible doesn't absolutely forbid
alcohol. The Bible:
1)
allows Christians to drink for medicinal purposes
(1 Tim. 5:23)
2) Sometimes
portrays alcohol as something good and enjoyable (PS 104)
3) Forbids
drunkeness (Eph 5:6)
4) Forbids
drinking if it offends fellow believers
(Rom. 14:15-21)
5) forbids
drinking if it hinders the gospel (1 Cor. 9:19-23)
6) Warns that
drinking is often dangerous and unwise (Proverbs 23:31; 31:4-5)
Because of the
destructive effects on our families, Jerry and I still do not drink.
We've witnessed in our families: death by car accident, broken marriages,
loss of businesses and homes, car wrecks, jail sentences, broken health,
loss of mental abilities, loss of health (perhaps cancer), homelessness,
etc. AA has helped a few. Others have quit by turning their
lives over to Christ.
We are now
available to speak at schools, colleges and church youth groups on our
CHOICES program. If any of you would like to see our program, we
have it on PowerPoint.
COMMENTS
FROM OUR PRESENTATIONS
"I would like
my children to see your presentation; it will teach them before it happens."
"This program
made me realize the importance of not drinking and driving. I won't
anymore."
"I will try
my best to never let this happen again; it had a very strong impact on
me."
"This program
needs to be included in the driver's ed program!"
