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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 29, 2002)
+ WEdNEsdAy, M ay 29, 2002 ThE CI ac I camas P rínt Through the eyes of victims JENNIFER KANE Staff Writer On Tuesday, May 21, about 30 people convened in the Gregory Forum for a special presentation put on by Oregon Impact, a non profit organization that provides diversion classes to drunken driv er offenders. The goal of Impact is to reduce the number of lives lost by intoxicated driving. A small handful of people volun teered their time to warn listeners about the effects of driving while under the influence of alcohol. Jeff Gibson, a medical examiner for Clackamas County, began the session by giving the audience some frightening statistics. Gibson’s job is simply to figure out how and why people die, and he also gives death notifications. “I’m not here to preach to people. I’m just here to give you straight facts,” he said. In the past 20 years alone there have been about 400,000 people killed in drunk driving accidents, which were totally preventable. He then showed a short video entitled “Carl and Carlie’s Story.” Carl McDonald is a Sergeant for the Wyoming Highway Patrol, and he lost his 5-year-old daugh ter, Carlie, to a drunk driving accident. Carlie’s mother got behind the wheel of her car after an evening of drinking, and Carlie climbed into the passen ger’s seat. Her mother was driv ing well over the speed limit when she slammed into the back the house, he offered to be “des of a semi-truck, and drove under ignated driver,” and take his two neath it. The car then rotated and friends down the road to the hit another vehicle. Carlie had ■store. It was about 9:15 p.m. on a her seat belt on, but it severed when the roof of the car peeled foggy night when her son hit back after the car went under some gravel while driving too neath the semi. Carlie did not fast. His car went between a make it out of the car alive. Her mailbox and telephone pole and flipped upside down. He wasn’t seat belted in, and his head flew out of the car window, and smashed underneath the car. His friends were wearing their seat belts, and walked away from the crash without a scratch. “What he didn’t realize,” Julie said, “is that Salena De La Cruz/The Clackamas Pnnt designated driver means .00 - Sign posted during Alcohol nothing.” Awareness Week. Tammy was the next speaker. mother, however, did. She was She began her short story by driving with an alcohol limit of telling the listeners that her .22 (the law is .08), and in turn biggest fear when she was a child pleaded “no contest” in court. was getting the back seat of a car Carl never had the chance to see when her father had been drink his young daughter grow up. ing. She recalled a time when her “No, I didn’t think it would hap dad handed her 14-year-old sister pen to me. Of course not,” he the keys and told her to get them says, “I’m here to tell you it can home. He then proceeded to pass out in the passenger’s seat of the happen to anyone.” After the video, three people car. Today, Tammy does not graciously told of their personal maintain a relationship with her experiences with drunk driving. father. She last talked to him in Julie’s son was the last to arrive 1999 to tell him he was a grand at a friend’s house one night, father. She believes that he still where they had all been drinking drinks and drives this day. Ron was the third speaker to go, for a few hours. Wanting to catch up, her son threw back a few in and was able to give a different quite a short amount of time. The view on the drinking and driving boys then became hungry and experience. wanted to go out for food. Since In January 1988, Ron stopped her son had been the last to get to by a local pub to have a few beers after work with some friends. He ordered a small pitcher (which is a little over 2 beers) and had made a promise to himself that it would be all he would drink. Friends then proceeded to buy rounds for the group, and Roh continued to drink, blaming it on peer pressure. “The next thing I remember from the tavern was racking the balls at the pool table,” Ron told the listeners. “Next I woke up in Emanuel Hospital with two people I didn’t recognize standing over me.” It was his mother and sister. They told him about the car crash, and that three people died. Going around a sharp turn at 70 mph, he hit a car straight on, and killed three of the four people inside. A wife and two daughters. The hus band survived the collision. Charged with manslaughter, assault, and driving while intoxi cated, Ron served just less than eight years in prison. “I used to think I could drive safer [while under the influence]. This safe driver went around a comer at 70 mph.” Ron’s final words of advice to the audience were simple, and surely rang in everyone’s heads as they made their way to the door and back to classes. “Don’t drink and drive. You have big careers ahead of you. Take advantage of it.” To reach Jennifer Kane e-mail jenk403@aol.com or drop by B- 104. Lives shattered by drinking, driving De La Cruz ■ Design Editor “I haven’t had too much to drink. I can drive.” That is probably what many of the 400,000 people who have been in traffic fatalities thought 7 before they got behind the wheel of their cars while under the influence of alcohol. It’s funny how many of us think we are invincible and it will never happen to us. Then one day, everything we love and hold dear is taken from us. Now, I’ve never lost someone in a drunk driving accident and so I cannot begin to fathom what the victims, survivors, persons driving under the influ ence and their families could possible be thinking, but I will say many times I’ve heard on the news of another accident involving alcohol. I was watching “Cops,” one day and saw a story highlighted about a woman who hit a tele phone pole because she was so drunk and passed out at the wheel. When she woke up the police were there and she didn’t even realize it or that she’d even been in an accident. It was then she tried to start her vehicle. Of course it wouldn’t start, the engine was practically sitting in the front seat with her. What could have happened just astounds me. How many peo ple can say they’ve had a few drinks and swore they could drive and then ended up in the same, if not worse, predica nt e n t ? I’ve read many stories online and in the news and I’ve come to one conclusion: Everyone must think before they drink. I don’t mean think, “Yeah, I shouldn’t drink,” and then for get about it once they start. I encourage everyone to do a search online for survivors of drunk driving. The stories are devastating. I sat on the com puter for a few hours and just read and cried. Peoples lives were severely altered. They lost brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. I would like to make a plea to everyone who has ever gotten behind the wheel of a car or boat. DON’T DO IT. The next time you get behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle you may not be so lucky, you may hurt yourself, or walk away, but worst of all if you are in an accident, the person you kill could be someone you love. To reach Salena De La Cruz e-mail salenadelacruz@netscape.net or drop by B-104. Somebody Should Have Taught Him Retold By Jane Watkins I went to a birthday party but I remembered what you said. You told me not to drink at all, so I had a Sprite instead. I felt proud of myself, the way you said I would, that I didn't choose to drink and drive, though some friends said I should. Lknew I made a healthy choice and your advice to me was right as the party finally ended and the kids drove out of sight. I got into my own car, , sure to get home in one piece, never knowing what was coming, something I expected least. Now I'm lying on the pavement. I can hear the policeman say, "The kid that caused this wreck was drunk." His voice seems far away. My own blood is all around me, as I try hard not to cry. I can hear the paramedic say, "This girl is going to die." I'm sure the guy had no idea, while he was flying high, because he chose to drink and drive that I would have to die. So why do people do it, knowing that it ruins lives? But now the pain is cutting me like a hundred stabbing knives. Tell my sister not to be afraid, tell Daddy to be brave, and when I go to heaven to put "Daddy's Girl" on my grave. Someone should have taught him that it's wrong to drink and drive. Maybe if his mom and. dad had, I'd still be alive. x. My breath is getting shorter, I'm getting really scared. These are my final moments, and I'm so unprepared. I wish that you could bold me, Mom, as I lie here and die, I wish that I could say I love you and good-bye. Information found on http://smileyOO.tripod.com/poe m!2 html
