The Crash Course in Drunk Driving

There are those of your friends that would have you believe that drinking and driving is acceptable. They would have you believe that there wouldn’t be any consequences, that you’d still be coordinated enough, that everything would be okay. So you drink a few bottles of beer, and your BAC is well over .08%. You are legally drunk. You’re driving along. Everything is shifting in and out of focus. The road is swimming in opposite directions. Your friends are laughing in the back seat, chiding each other on and drinking more and more as the ride progresses. Suddenly you see a flash of light. Where did that come from? You swerve to avoid it, but you hit a rather large something with a blaring horn head on. Inertia jerks your head forward into the steering wheel; weight passes by you. All you can hear is loud screams and the sickening shatter of glass, which is everywhere. A loud crunching emanates from below you. Pain rips through your legs and up into your torso. Your mind is numb. It all happens so fast. And then everything goes black for a few moments.

The next thing you hear coherently is a man yelling about someone with severe injuries trapped in a car, and the horrible grinding of metal on metal as a firefighter takes a chainsaw to your driver’s side door. You can’t feel anything anymore, only nauseous. Something warm is dripping down your chin. What is that? Blood? Everything goes fuzzy.

Groggy, you wake in a bed, soft linen caressing your arms. Where are you? It’s bright. With a cry, your mother runs to your side and runs a ginger hand along the side of your head.

“Can you hear me?”

You nod. She begins to sob. She explains that you’ve been in an accident, and that four people were killed, including your lover, your best friends, and the person driving in the other vehicle. They weren’t wearing seatbelts.