The Toss, The Scream, The Question

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, only in this case the hurt has great potential of becoming death at any and every turn. I’ve seen my share of rowdy parties, outlandish festivities and late night afterglows that led to more than just hugging the porcelain bowl wondering why we ever thought playing beer pong was a great idea. It’s not so much having a drink that concerns most of us, it’s the very idea that you think you can drive while under the influence, more so that it’s even alright to drive. How many great epiphanies does it take for us to see the chooses that hang lives in the balance are not chooses to be made while drunk.

We try to add rules and laws to make our streets safe but to no avail, with so many who scoff at such decrees and set their own bar. It’s not that every single driver who has a drink and then drives is going to have a fatality, that’s not at all what I’m saying. I’m simply saying that its tuff enough to drive while all our senses are fully intact much less when they are hampered. This is why the Austin police Chief Art Acevedo is pushing for a new drunk driving category in Texas. His plan would target those who have had a couple drinks, but are not yet legally drunk. "People need to understand impairment starts with the first drink.” It would be called Driving While Ability Impaired (DWAI) and would apply to those with a blood alcohol level of .05 and .07. The current DWI limit is .08 (Acevedo). We could all name someone or have heard of someone whose lives have been affected in some way by drunk drivers, the list might never end if we actually sat down and began to write. However I only want to funnel you toward one story in particular, it’s a story that starts like all the others and ends like most of them as well, only this one resonates with great emotion because it’s so close to home.

It’s been over fifteen years since it happen and I can still hear her screams scratching at my mind like sharp nails on a chalkboard. The party was incredible that night; we had good food, great friends, awesome music, and endless drinks. I wasn’t much for drinking at this stage of my life, but really enjoyed great company so I found myself at all the hot spots. My close friends would always invite me to these shindigs just so they would have a designated driver on hand. However this night as things began to wind down we would be faced with the issue of far too many needing rides and only one driver. That’s when Lisa, the wife of a dear friend decided that she hadn’t had that much to drink and could drive some of the crew members’ home. Everything was fine until her claim that something hit the window caused her to lose control of the wheel; sending them on a ten plus hood over carriage flip-aram-a that took the life of every passenger except the driver. She laid there grasping for composure, her mind numb with pain. For a brief moment she said it felt like it was a bad dream, a bad dream that quickly turned into a nightmare as the engine burst into flames that began to lick at the air like a startled snake. She loosened her upside down remains and pulled herself away from the firebox. The car exploded and every smile, every laugh, every joke told, every gathering, and every night out came to a complete end. I had already dropped off two of my passengers and was only a few minutes behind the accident. I arrived just prior to the explosion, and her meltdown. I’m still not sure if it was the noise of the blast or the heat of the flames that jarred her mind but it wasn’t until then did she realize all who she so eagerly choose to chauffeur. First there was Eddie, he had just turned twenty one and was one of the main reasons for the party. Then we had Jimmy, he wasn’t the crowd favorite but you could always rest assure that if you needed someone to back you up for any reason, Jimmy was your man. Last but not least we had Alfonso, Fonzy for all his close friends and he was extremely close to Lisa since they had been married for six years and had two girls together. That scream, that deafening, hollow, empty scream shook me to core. I sat that and watched her die on the inside as her heart crashed to the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces like it was made of glass.

Nothing prepares you for death, no matter how many times you think you’re really ready for it, you’re truly not even with a warning. So when you add the element of surp