Every 15 Minutes - A Drunk Driver Kills

Bottom of post is a video created by a high school for this event - Worth the Watch

When I was in high school a good friend of mine killed someone....

My friend D had just turned 18 years old and he had been celebrating the New Year ringing into 1983 when he got behind the wheel of his car... D did not believe he was drunk - He was happy.. He was having a fun time until..... he lost control of his car and plowed into another car killing the driver... Six months later my dear sweet friend was in jail and he would remain there until well after his next birthday.... D was a good kid - A good kid who made a bad mistake... Today many many years later - he still feels the pain of that fatal night 29 years ago...

Several years ago my niece was asked to participate in a school event called Every 15 Minutes... As my sister was explaining to me what was going to happen - I could not help but cry... You see - my niece was going to "die" by a drunk driver - She would leave the school - No one would see her - and my sister had the most difficult task of all - writing her daughter's obituary... Although, it was make believe - just the thought of losing my beautiful talented and so very special niece was very hard to take..

Last week - my daughter's high school had their version of Every 15 Minutes - because my daughter is a sophomore she did not participate but many of her friends did and they told her how difficult it was not to cry....

The last couple of weeks I have been planning my daughter's Sweet Sixteen Party and I can't help but think that pretty soon she will behind the wheel of a car and she will most likely attend parties where there will be drinking and many friends will be driving (hopefully - she will never consider drinking and driving or riding with someone that is)... It's hard because kids (and many adults) think that they are good drivers when they are drunk or they may think that nothing bad is going to happen to them... It's a scary time as a parent... One of the things that I have told both of my girls - is that if they do drink at a party or if their ride is drinking - They have a free pass to call me regardless of the time and I will pick up whoever needs to be driven somewhere - no questions asked and no punishment given.... That doesn't mean I won't lecture or be leery the next time they go out... But I need to let them know that their safety is number 1 - Period... And I don't want them fearful of calling home..