Oh, the injustice of it all...

[trinamick]

I come from a town of about 3,000 people, so you pretty much know everybody or they know you. Last night, there was a head-on collision that killed two people. One, a middle-aged father of three, drove across the center line while drunk and hit a 27 yo single man. The drunk driver had already lost his family and his job because of his lifestyle, yet he continued to joke about blacking out when drinking and not remembering how he got home each night. He was foul-mouthed, perverted, abusive, and all around obnoxious. On the other hand, the guy he hit was a good friend of mine, smart, handsome, friendly, funny, and never had a bad thing to say about anyone. Normally, the offender lives while killing someone else, but this time they both lost their lives because of one person's stupidity. :cry2:

So here's my soapbox for the day: PLEASE do not drive if you have been drinking. You might not kill yourself, but you may kill an innocent person. And never, never, never, ride with someone who has been drinking. Take their keys, do whatever you have to, but don't let your friends drink & drive if they are really your friends. I have been guilty of riding with someone who was drinking before, and I have since regretted it. So many people act like it's no big deal. But it only seems unimportant until you lose a friend or family member. Learn from the mistakes of others. Don't make your family or someone else's family suffer because of your bad judgment.

[Clarsax]

I'm sorry to hear what happened trinamick
:hug:

[janey_13]

:hugz:

[NYPinTA]

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. :hug:

[NebariNookiee]

I had a friend... well -- EX friend call the cops on me one night at a concert for taking her keys cause she was too drunk to drive. Actually, she was on more than just alcohol and I told her I wasn't giving them back. She calls the cops, who come and give her a breathalizer -- AFTER I try to explain to them that I didn't steal her keys. She passed the test (which I knew was total dren cause of the other things she had taken) and the cop DEMANDED I give her the keys back. I gave them to the cop instead. I told him "It's on your head" and walked away -- disappearing into the club. I haven't talked to her since. I figured if she had killed someone it would be on the cops head -- not mine.

[trinamick]

Well, it seems to be a small town mentality that it's just something everybody does, and people joke about how trashed they were and how they don't know how they made it home. Half of our business is DUIs and MIPs. It's sickening, especially since our town has had about 10 deaths over the last 2 yrs from alcohol-related accidents. There are nights (i.e. New Year's, Halloween, etc.) that I won't even drive on our streets or on the highway because SO many people drive home drunk. It's just scary that they don't seem to realize how dangerous it is until it's too late.

[generic_screenname]

Sorry about your friend... :(

[fermicat]

Very sorry to hear about this.

[trinamick]

The daughter of the drunk driver didn't know her dad had been killed until one of the kids at school told her. It's pretty sad when the whole town knows before the cops notify the family. The other guy's cousin is also in the same grade. She found out at school that he died as well. Both girls are in the same class. I can't imagine finding out something like that from a classmate. The glory of small town gossip... :(

[recklesshumor]

I'm sorry about your friend, Trina. Too many people learn this lesson the hard way.

[Kurt_eh]

:hug2: Sorry to hear about your friend. :(

It boggles me that people are stupid enough to do that.

I have a strict 1-drink limit when I've got to drive. And even then, I always wait at least an hour before getting behind the wheel....

And even then I feel guilty.

[trubador]

:g2f: :hug:

[BrowderChick]

:hug: for you!! :cry2: My cousin was killed by a drunk driver. She was a passenger in a car and both were sober. Another car hit them head on doing 80. It was full size Ford against Horizon. Needless to say there was nothing left of the smll car that was carrying Bobbi. She left behind a 2 week old daughter. It galls me to think that people like this are out on the road. My sister-in-law's sister had to go through it the other way. She finally divorced her husband after he was nailed for DWI 3 times. He ended up killing someone and is now in jail for the next 20 years. But my heart goes out to you for the loss of your friend. :hug:

[Kurt_eh]

WHy is it that they only end up in jail after someone is dead?

[who45]

So sorry about your friend.:hug:

[Scarran Raptor]

you have my deepest condolensces, and a fellow voice to aid in your cause, driving under any kind of impairment is dangerous and I speak from experience, I was driving home from class one morning after a rough night before I went in, I nodded off behind the wheel and before I knew it, I rear-ended a woman with a baby, her car was fine, her kid wasn't even in the car but the front half of my car was accordioned, a traffic ticket or two later and I've since learned to let others drive or just plain nap where I can, and if I'm at a friends' house and I've had a few, I usually sleep the night there

[abbadon]

Very sorry to hear about your friend:hug:

This tribute was written by Henry Scott Holland , a Cannon at St Pauls Cathedral in the 1800's .I found solace in it ...hope you do too...

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.

All is well.

[Mrelia]

Abaddon, that's so beautiful...I'm writing that one down in my little book of favorite quotes.

Trinamick, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend...drunk driving is one of the most inexcusable crimes around. The owner of my daughter's daycare is now raising her grandkids - 6-12yrs. old - because a drunk driver killed their parents just after Christmas 2002. My youngest uncle was struck and killed by a drunk driver when he was 6 years old.

I'm one who will take advantage of a drunk's impaired perception to "pickpocket" their keys & "help them look". Once they're safely in a cab, if the venue's big drop the keys off at a lost & found. If the place is small, drop them off at a nearby police station the next day. Thankfully I haven't been in that situation much because I don't drink often & usually end up driving.

[BrowderChick]

abbadon...that was beautiful. Thank You...

[trinamick]

Thanks, abbadon. That was beautiful. Thanks to the rest of you for your thoughts as well.

I just found out that the guy was not only drunk, but his vehicle contained a large amount of meth as well. I feel horrible for his family, but it just makes me so angry that a waste of oxygen like that can destroy everyone's world around him. His family and my friend's family will have to suffer forever. It sounds terrible, but it seems to me like he got off easy. Death is simple, living with what he had done would have been retribution. Of course, with our justice system, he probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist anyway.