Mena
DUI Awareness
4/7/08

Blurred vision plagues a young adult driver as she is trying to find her way home after a night of heavy drinking. She is not aware of it, but her blood alcohol concentration is at 0.10, slightly over the legal limit of 0.08. She is determined to make it home, when all of a sudden she strikes an object in her path.
Fortunately, for this individual she only hit an orange cone, not another human being and instead of living with guilt for the rest of her life for potentially killing someone, she is relieved that it was only simulation that has taken place.
The Eighth Annual South Bay DUI Awareness Fair took place on the EC campus library lawn on April 1, just before the spring break holiday.
“Every single day that you come to school, you add another building block to your future,” Tina Pasco, Executive Director for the Los Angeles County Chapter for Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, said. “You choose your own future when you make a decision to break a law, a dangerous law that involves risky behavior. You can possibly injure someone, even kill them and you face the same danger. This bad decision has the potential to throw everything you’ve accomplished away.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for ages 6 to 28. They add that almost half are alcohol related.
“I attended the event because my friend thinks that he can pass the test,” Kevin Moreno, 19, Undecided said. “He thinks he can be drunk and still be a good driver.”
The consequences for driving drink are severe. If you are under age 21, your driver’s license is instantly suspended, whether there is a conviction or not. If you are age 21 and over, you risk losing your driver’s license. Other consequences include expensive fines, court appearances and possibly losing your job or falling behind in school in attending to this serious matter.
“No one accidentally drinks and no one accidently drives,” Pasco said. “If you combine these two choices, the cost can be deadly.”
Pasco once worked with the family of a man who killed a 7 year-old child in a DUI incident. The child was getting off of a bus but was not able to walk more than 12 feet because she was struck and killed by the man who had been drinking and decided to drive that day.
“The mother of the perpetrator was emotionally impacted by the tragic event,” Pasco said. “She confessed to me that she did not know how to live with herself knowing that her child took the life of someone else’s child.”
There are many different alternatives to driving drunk. These alternatives include: assigning a designated driver, calling a cab or taking public transportation.
“Police agencies are not asking students 21 and over not to drink or not to a good time,” Pete Kim, Public Affairs Officer for the California Highway Patrol, said. “We want everyone to have a good time because we did it too, but just make sure to drink responsibly.”