During the early hours of Sunday morning, a fiery car crash on Interstate 275 in North Tampa resulted in the death of five men — four of whom were University of South Florida students, according to NBC News. An unidentified driver of a Ford Expedition was traveling south on the northbound side of the road and struck a Hyundai Sonata carrying the four USF students head-on. Authorities are investigating whether the driver of the Expedition was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Florida Highway Patrol said the driver of the SUV was a male in his early 20s, but they have so far been unable to identify the body due to severe burns.
Our hearts go out to the friends and families of the victims who, according to reports, did nothing wrong. The chilling message that arises from this crisis — and other drunken-driving accidents across the country — is that you don’t have to be in the car with someone who’s drunk behind the wheel to be a victim.
This concept alone should force people to think twice before allowing a friend to drive home while intoxicated, but unfortunately, it doesn’t. According to U.S. News, a University of Maryland School of Public Health survey found that one in five college students admitted to having driven while drunk, and 43 percent of survey respondents said they’ve knowingly ridden with a drunken driver.
“Drinking and driving endangers the safety of not only the drinking driver and passengers but also other individuals on the road,” one co-author of the study said in a news release. “College students have limited driving experience, making drinking and driving possibly even more hazardous.”
Given the vast amount of resources available to prevent people from driving while drunk — in Gainesville alone we have SNAP for on-campus students and Later Gator buses for those who choose to imbibe in Midtown or downtown — it may be surprising that drunken driving continues to be a pervasive problem. Like shooting up heroin or having unprotected sex with a stranger, driving while intoxicated should be a no-brainer: Don’t do it.
But drunken driving is a cultural matter: How many times have you heard someone joke that they drive better while drunk or brag about how many times they’ve driven while drunk? Or, perhaps the most common, how often have you watched a friend stagger to his or her car after a long night while assuring his or her friends, “Nah guys, I’m good”?
Drunken driving, for whatever reason, is a point of pride, and unfortunately, no amount of tragic headlines, Mothers Against Drunk Driving campaigns or high-school driver’s ed courses will get through to the 18-to-24 demographic that’s so susceptible to drunken-driving accidents.
Drunken-driving prevention occurs on an individual level, like the drop-in-a-bucket theory. When you see a drunk friend, offer to drive him or her or offer to call a cab. If you are that friend, let yourself be helped by others. Your life — and the lives of other drivers on the road — are at stake.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 2/10/2014 under the headline "Please, please, please don’t ever drive drunk"]
