In the news today. 28 year-old guy. 3:00 AM, Brooklyn NY. Driving home. Drunk as a skunk.He loses control of his Dodge. Slides into a sidewalk where a group of pedestrians was. Smashes four of them, in early twenties. 21 year-old is killed. The other 3 are badly injured. Woman has her leg torn off.
Drunk tries to drive away but the Dodge is damaged. He tries to get out of vehicle but citizens hold the door closed.
Drunk refuses to blow. Is arrested and charged. He had been scheduled to be at work by 7:00 AM. Now, he is immediately suspended.
The victims' lives are horribly damaged. The drunk's life is ruined.
I always feared that this scenario, or one just like it, would eventually painfully emerge into my consciousness as I woke up after a bad drunk one day. Scared the hell out of me. But I kept doing it. I have no clue as to how I managed to avoid it over the many years I drank.
Tanin, I feel exactly as you do. I managed to get through my drinking days with only 1 DUI, and only a few injuries. (A pretty bad skull cracking injury when I was drunk off of moonshine at just 16 or 17 years old. I'm fine, now though.) A bunch of fights (lost every single one of them, cause I always picked fights with bigger guys, and I'm not a great fighter, even when sober).
I have no doubt that if I didn't end the drinking, it would have ended me. Probably sooner than later. I just have that feeling.
im lucky to have got out alive, and without too much damage.
It can all end in the flash of a second. Bam. Yer done.
like JAD said...Grateful.
i generally didn't drive when I was drinking. But all it takes is once. I remember driving through the mountains one night in my motorhome, coming back from skiing. Spending a lot of time after the skiing, in the lodge. I got hammered. I didn't black out, I can remember the 25 mile drive back to the campground I was staying at. Swerving all over. Thank God it was very very late, probably 2 am, and there wasn't really anybody else on the road. How I kept that vehicle on that long, up and down, winding road, is a miracle. I remember almost losing it a couple of times. BAM. Right into a tree, the end of me.
I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that shit ever again.
I have worked in a trauma center for many years now. The number of lives I have seen devastated by driving impaired is unbelievable. This does not even take into account all the shootings, stabbings and general lunacy in which alcohol was a major contributor. Just in the past few months I have seen one young man who will be in a wheel chair and another who killed his sister while driving drunk. In both those cases I saw the parents and felt so totally helpless it makes me sick just thinking about it. This makes all that more unbelievable how many times I got behind the wheel after drinking. I feel like I must have had a guardian angel that nothing bad ever happened to me.
I am glad that I got caught drinking and driving and had to go to jail for my stupid behavior. It didn't stop me from drinking again, unfortunately. It did stop me from getting in a car and driving when I had been drinking. I am so very glad that no one got hurt or killed as a result of my thoughtless behavior. There is a guy in AA who did kill a teenage girl while drinking and driving. Although it happened years ago, he still has to deal with the guilt of wiping out a young life. I know had it happened that it was me who did that I would have a very difficult time living with myself. This could happen to any of us who make the choice to drink and drive.
