Drinking and Driving
Yes, this may seem real preachy, which isn't how I am usually, but I have been personally affected by drunk drivers. This post is prompted by two people telling me that they had driven under the influence of alcohol. I do like my drink but I seriously think one should never drive if they are tipsy. Although they may insist they knew what they were doing, I can only tell them the story of Christopher "Beau" Barton-Lewis.
I met him at a now defunct chatroom for gamers in 2000 - we were talking about games, but then we exchanged ICQ numbers and talked more - purely platonic, it's just that we had common interests of games and anime that we clicked. We corresponded for a few months, until suddenly there was complete silence from him. Then one day I received a message from his ICQ nick from someone who said she is his mum to say that he had passed on. Since I knew him to be rather angsty and sometimes rather fond of kidding around, I wrote back "Is this a joke?"
A few days later, I received an email from Cindy, Beau's mum. She confirmed that he had indeed passed on. He was killed in a drunk driving accident - a driver who was drunk hit Beau's car. His girlfriend Susan in the passenger survived him but Beau did not make it. He died en route to the hospital. He was only eighteen.
Although I've never met him personally, I felt the impact. I wrote back to Cindy to say how sorry I was, and that this crime is simply unforgivable.
Yes it might be inconvenient to leave your car someplace after you have been drinking. Yes it doesn't make sense since you can still control the steering wheel and see where you're going. Yes, it might seem wussy to admit you are too drunk to drive. But are all these reasons worth the risk of killing somebody?
I'm not saying one should completely abstain from alcohol if they intend to drive - just be patient and responsible enough to take some time and recover before taking the wheel.
Yes, this may seem real preachy, which isn't how I am usually, but I have been personally affected by drunk drivers. This post is prompted by two people telling me that they had driven under the influence of alcohol. I do like my drink but I seriously think one should never drive if they are tipsy. Although they may insist they knew what they were doing, I can only tell them the story of Christopher "Beau" Barton-Lewis.
I met him at a now defunct chatroom for gamers in 2000 - we were talking about games, but then we exchanged ICQ numbers and talked more - purely platonic, it's just that we had common interests of games and anime that we clicked. We corresponded for a few months, until suddenly there was complete silence from him. Then one day I received a message from his ICQ nick from someone who said she is his mum to say that he had passed on. Since I knew him to be rather angsty and sometimes rather fond of kidding around, I wrote back "Is this a joke?"
A few days later, I received an email from Cindy, Beau's mum. She confirmed that he had indeed passed on. He was killed in a drunk driving accident - a driver who was drunk hit Beau's car. His girlfriend Susan in the passenger survived him but Beau did not make it. He died en route to the hospital. He was only eighteen.
Although I've never met him personally, I felt the impact. I wrote back to Cindy to say how sorry I was, and that this crime is simply unforgivable.
Yes it might be inconvenient to leave your car someplace after you have been drinking. Yes it doesn't make sense since you can still control the steering wheel and see where you're going. Yes, it might seem wussy to admit you are too drunk to drive. But are all these reasons worth the risk of killing somebody?
I'm not saying one should completely abstain from alcohol if they intend to drive - just be patient and responsible enough to take some time and recover before taking the wheel.
Yo killer chick
I agree, head, body and bottle, hick, gurp...and I'm sane when I write this. Drunk drivers should not be complacent, even if they think they are darn good drivers (whether under influence of alcohol or not)
Girlosopher
Posted by
girlosopher |
Wednesday, April 06, 2005 5:48:00 PM