A Deadly Mixture

“A GRAVE crisis,” declared U.S. president Bush. An “appalling state of affairs,” stated The Star of South Africa. “An epidemic,” reported U.S.News & World Report. “A scourge on society,” said a concerned citizen.

Are they talking about the dreadful AIDS virus? No, but about another kind of plague that in most countries is at present claiming more victims than AIDS. What is it? The result of a deadly mixture: drinking and driving.

Worldwide, about 300,000 people are killed in vehicle accidents each year. Of the millions who are injured, tens of thousands are maimed for life. The financial cost is many thousands of millions of dollars annually. Alcohol-related accidents account for a large part of that.

In the decade ending in 1990, some 100,000 people died from AIDS in the United States. But in the same ten years, about 250,000 have been killed in alcohol-related vehicle accidents. AIDS more often directly affects the sexually promiscuous and the intravenous drug user. But the alcohol-impaired driver may kill not only the abuser but the innocent bystander as well.

The mixing of drinking and driving often inflicts a most violent kind of death upon unsuspecting victims, and it rips apart families. It bereaves parents of their children, children of their parents, spouses of their mates.

Attempts to Stem the Tide

Many efforts are being made to stem this tidal wave of devastation. In the United States, public awareness campaigns have been launched by grass-roots organizations such as RID (Remove Intoxicated Drivers) and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers). There are Stop-DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) programs. Similar organizations exist in other countries. These help victims with their rights and promote legal reforms.

Law-enforcement agencies are stepping up efforts to arrest impaired drivers, using such things as sobriety checkpoints. Various laws have been enacted to make those who serve alcoholic beverages liable for prosecution. Even billboards are being used to remind drivers of existing laws.

Death Toll Continues to Rise

In spite of all these efforts, the drunk-driving death toll throughout the world continues to rise. In Brazil one person is killed every 21 minutes​—some 25,000 each year—​in alcohol-related accidents. That is about 50 percent of all traffic fatalities there. In England and Germany, about one fifth of all traffic fatalities are said to be alcohol related. In Mexico, according to several sources, 80 percent of the 50,000 traffic fatalities are due to ‘human error, basically caused by drunk driving,’ reports Mexico City’s El Universal.

It is estimated that over 25 percent of traffic casualties in South Africa involve alcohol. In the United States in an average year, alcohol-related accidents result in some 650,000 injuries, of which about 40,000 are serious; over 23,000 people are killed​—about half of the total traffic fatalities.

Out of desperation in attempting to curb the alcohol-impaired driver, a DWI Victims Panel was organized in Washington State, U.S.A. It has become part of the judicial process in sentencing those convicted of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant. The program is now employed in many parts of that country. Its purpose is to bring offenders face-to-face with the tragic consequences of their irresponsible drinking. The guilty offenders are sentenced by the courts to listen to the victims and their family members and be made aware of the awful price that has been paid. Awake! was invited to take a close look at one such presentation.

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Dominic D. Massita, Sr./​Accident Legal Photo Service of New York

Victims Face Offenders

THE setting: Upper New York State’s Genesee County DWI Victims Panel. The scene: Six persons, bound together by the grief they share and holding pictures of their loved ones, participate in a painful attempt to make an impact on offenders convicted of driving while intoxicated.

The following are excerpts from their remarks, condensed by Awake!

The Victims

A father: “This is our son Eric. He was an ideal son, full of humor, full of smiles. Now I’m a sad, grieving father with a deceased son 17 years old. In an instant, gone were our dreams, our hopes for the future, our love​—killed by a drunk driver.

“I go with my wife to the cemetery. It’s the last thread we have to hang on to. We read Eric’s words engraved on the marker: ‘I will miss you with all my heart, and I hope we won’t be far apart; and if we are, I will cry because I never wanted to say good-bye.’ And we don’t want to say good-bye either.”

A young widow: “This is my family. A 22-year-old man left a wedding reception claiming he did not feel intoxicated. In his pickup truck, traveling at a high speed down a dark, unfamiliar road, he approached a warning sign and ignored it, then continued through a stop sign and crashed into us. The next moment I recall was awakening with a painful pressure in my chest. As I struggled to open my eyes, I managed to get a glimpse of my husband slumped over the steering wheel. I heard my baby crying. I remember asking, ‘What happened?’

“No one answered. My husband, Bill, 31 years old; my oldest son, 6 years old; and my twin boys, 4 years old, were dead. My only hope left was my little nine-month-old girl, who was hospitalized with a severe head injury.

“As I lay in the hospital on a dreary, wet, Wednesday morning, my husband and three boys were buried. I thought of four coffins, four broken bodies, four persons that I would never see, hear, or touch again. How was I supposed to go on?

“My little daughter and I were forced to start a new life. I sold my home, as I was unable to live with the memories. I find it hard to cope with the fact that my husband and three beautiful boys are in the cemetery. All the care, the worry, the love, was not enough to protect them. The pain, frustration, and emptiness I feel cannot be put into words. They lived for such a short time.

“The person who took the lives of my family was not a hardened criminal or an alcoholic or a repeat offender​—just an average person out for an evening of socializing. I’m paying this awful price because someone chose to drink and drive. May this never happen to you or someone you love.”

A mother: “My daughter’s name is Rhonda Lynn. She was to have graduated from high school on June 21. On June 10 she was taking the last lesson of her driver-education course. On that day two individuals who had been partying and drinking heavily made an irresponsible decision to drive. In one brief moment, they made it the last day of Rhonda’s life, as well as the lives of her driver-education teacher and two of her classmates.

“That afternoon I received a call saying that Rhonda had been involved in an accident. My only thought was that I had to be with her. When I arrived at the hospital, I was told not to go in to see Rhonda. But I had to be sure. I made them pull the sheet away. Her face was so swollen and badly scratched. I kept staring at her beautiful eyes and touching her arm, but I couldn’t make her crushed body better. All I could do was stroke her beautiful hair. There was no response. She was gone.

“I had the unfortunate task of telling her father and brothers that she was gone. Now our days are not the same because of the horrendous void. If we could just hug her, hold her one more time. Life will never be the same. All we have left are the memories.”

An Offender

A young man: “My story is different from the ones you’ve heard so far. Mine begins 23 months ago. I remember it as if it were yesterday. My girlfriend was bowling in a league that night, so I decided to have a few drinks and watch her bowl. I had five or six glasses of beer in the next two and a half hours. I figured I’d be responsible and wait an hour before I drove home.

“About 30 minutes into my trip home, there was an ambulance on the road, and there was a man in the middle of the road directing traffic. I never saw that man until it was too late. I tried to swerve and put on my brakes. As soon as my windshield shattered, I said to myself: ‘Let it be a deer or a dog!’ But I knew it wasn’t. I got out of the car and went over to him, screaming, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’ He didn’t answer me. I remember standing over him, looking at his face. It was all so morbid.

“The state troopers came over and asked me questions. Then they said: ‘You’re being very cooperative, but you’re walking funny and you’re talking funny. Have you been drinking?’ They took me to the police barracks and gave me a test. It was an 0.08 [an illegal blood-alcohol content in most parts of the United States]. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me. I had thought that nothing like this could ever happen to me. Yet, now I was facing criminally negligent homicide charges, DWAI [Driving While Ability Impaired].

“I was one month away from getting my teaching certificate. Think about how society looks upon teachers. They expect them to be morally unblemished. It was what I was working for, and now I was looking at losing it all.

“I got one year’s probation, lost my driver’s license for 19 months, was fined 250 dollars, spent a weekend in jail, did 600 hours of community service, and went through a nine-week alcohol counseling course. More than that, I remember the nights I’d wake up shaking, with the picture of that man’s face in my mind. And I had to go back and face all my friends and family. It seemed like such a struggle to continue with my life. I wasn’t sure it was worth it. I had to go back to student teaching and look at all those kids. I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them knew about what I had done. And I was filled with the guilt and remorse that I felt toward that man’s family.

“The night of the accident, I had to do the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life​—call my mom and tell her, ‘Mom, I killed a man in an accident. I need a ride home.’ When she got there, we just held each other and cried. I wouldn’t wish for my worst enemy to go through what I went through. People who drink and drive​—that’s a problem I want to help with. When you walk away from this meeting, walk away with remembrance of us. Never forget us.”

The Panel Concludes

Patricia Johnston, coordinator of this victims panel, concluded with her own tragic experience of her alcoholic father’s fatal crash. She said: “If I could bottle the grief that alcohol causes and make it ‘one for the road,’ there would never be a need for another program like this!”

Finally, the moderator asked if anyone had questions. None were asked. But there were many with tearful eyes who said: “You’ll never hear of me drinking and driving again.”

Time alone will tell what results such panels will have in affecting the rate at which arrested offenders return to the road again to drive when drunk. But what makes the problem one of frightening proportions is the huge number, millions, of those who do take to the road impaired and who are not apprehended.

Recent reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice showed that in one recent year, nearly two million persons were arrested for DUI (Driving Under the Influence). But statistics also showed that for every DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) arrest made, as many as 2,000 more may go undetected in unpatrolled areas, numbers waiting to give birth to casualties.

What has created the environment that fosters such deadly and irresponsible action? Why does the war against drinking and driving continue to be waged but not won? Let us look at some of the answers.

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Reenactment of perpetrator facing victims panel

Who Is at Fault?

“GETTING drunk is acceptable” to many people in society, says Jim Vanderwood of the Mohawk Valley Council on Alcoholism in New York State. Unfortunately, very few can successfully deny that drinking, even to excess, is part of their society’s makeup.

For years most societies have been tolerant of regular, and even heavy, drinking. This has encouraged others to imitate that permissive attitude. As Vanderwood states: “Look at the movies. We’ve always applauded people who can drink you under the table and still go out and be a great cowboy. It’s looked upon as a kind of self-esteem builder. How do you combat that?”

Thus, while the primary guilt rests upon those who commit mayhem by drinking and driving, permissive, indulgent societies with their unbalanced attitude toward alcohol also bear a measure of the guilt.

“Drinking is not only acceptable but vigorously promoted,” states crime prevention officer Jim Thompson. He told Awake!: “Many sporting events are geared around the alcohol industry, such as the beer industry.” He noted that during many sporting events, “the best commercials on TV are beer commercials, with all of society’s shining stars endorsing their favorite beer.”

A federal workshop held under the direction of former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop was boycotted by the National Association of Broadcasters and the Association of National Advertisers. Why? Because it addressed this issue of driving under the influence of alcohol and the matter of culpability. Dr. Patricia Waller, who chaired the Education Panel of the workshop, stated: “The fact is that we [society] have created this problem, and people are dumb enough to succumb to all the pressure we’ve been putting on them since they were old enough to notice anything on television. ‘But,’ [society says] ‘we’re not responsible. That’s not our problem.’”

Today’s Youthful Offender​—Tomorrow’s Problem Drinker

Through various means, such as television, movies, and advertisements, drinking is glamorized. This reaches the young, impressionable mind with the message, ‘You can drink and live happily ever after.’

“The average child will see alcohol consumed 75,000 times on TV before he is of legal drinking age,” states Dr. T. Radecki of the National Coalition on Television Violence in the United States. British researcher Anders Hansen surveyed prime-time TV in the United Kingdom and found that 71 percent of all fictional programs include drinking. There were, on an average, 3.4 scenes of drinking per hour with “very few portrayals of alcohol consumption with more specific outcomes,” such as vehicle accidents and homicides, lamented Hansen.

Writing for The Washington Post, columnist Colman McCarthy put it this way: “Behind the fun-and-games of . . . ex-athletes as barroom pitchmen are ad and promotional campaigns designed to captivate children and push to college students the idea that consuming alcohol, and lots of it, is essential for social well-being. Take it from the ‘tastes great, less filling’ boys, if you aren’t hoisting a glass, you’re out of it.”

In the Soviet Union, drinking and driving is a major national problem. Some officials there doubt that drinking habits can be changed. “It’s in our Russian roots,” said one. While this may be so, it is viewed by many as a form of recreation. So the young and impressionable grow up in an environment of drinking.

J. Vanderwood explains that the United States has “a young drinking culture. Alcohol equals softball, bowling, superbowl, happy hours. If it’s recreation, it’s alcohol, if it’s alcohol, it’s recreation.” He notes: “You might grow out of that phase if you haven’t triggered your addiction psychologically, sociologically, or physically.” But then he warns: “One thing that we know from research, and it’s well attested to, is that if you start drinking heavily when you are 14, 15, or 16, you can develop an addiction within a year. In the early 20’s, within a few years.”

Is it any wonder that the leading cause of death among 16-to-24-year-olds in the United States is alcohol-related traffic accidents? No doubt it is also a leading cause of death in many other countries. Thus, Dr. Waller concludes that conscientious parents who try to rear their children in a home climate that is pulling in the direction of sobriety are confronted by a permissive society that “is pulling in the other” direction.

So today’s youthful drinker can become tomorrow’s chronic problem drinker. And he is often resistant to rehabilitation, which poses a huge threat to public safety on the roads. One 34-year-old repeat offender, after going through a state-mandated alcohol program, went on a drinking binge and drove his pickup truck down the wrong side of a Kentucky highway. He crashed into a bus filled with teenagers and sent 27 people​—24 youngsters and 3 adults—​to a flaming death. Indeed, it has been determined that more than a quarter of those who are convicted drunk drivers are previous offenders.

Alcohol​—A Licit Drug

Many authorities are bringing to the attention of the public that alcohol is a licit (legal) drug. They are equating alcohol with other addictive drugs.

At a special White House briefing, U.S. president Bush declared that drunk driving is “as crippling as crack. As random as gang violence. And it’s killing more kids than both combined.” He also emphasized that “we must teach our children that alcohol is a drug.”

If you have not viewed alcohol as a drug before, you are not alone. “A lot of people don’t connect it,” says C. Graziano, a traffic-safety director, adding: “Lawyers, doctors, judges. Alcohol can affect anyone . . . It’s accessible. It’s so easy to get!” Because it is legal in most countries, it can be purchased in various types of stores. Often there are few controls.

Technically, alcohol is a food because of its caloric content. But it must also be classified as a drug because it depresses the body’s central nervous system. In large doses it has a narcotic effect on the body the same as a barbiturate. Because of its “mood altering nature, it’s a stress reducer,” says J. Vanderwood. “It loosens up your inhibitions, changes your thought process. You feel that you can perform when you really cannot.” Therein lies the problem with drinking and driving. As he concludes: “You have an impaired person making an impaired judgment about an impaired performance.”

Some who are involved in difficult situations​—divorce, loss of a job, family problems—​often resort to heavy drinking in an attempt to cope with the pressure and stress. In this condition they behave in “irrational, irresponsible ways, including DWI,” says the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

However, with alcohol one does not have to be intoxicated to have one’s performance affected. Only one or two drinks can impair the judgment of a driver and make him a threat to himself and others.

Tragic indeed is this scourge upon society, which has poisoned itself with a deadly mixture of commercial greed and a permissive attitude toward a licit but potentially highly dangerous substance. What comfort, then, is there for those who mourn this tragedy? What real hope can there be for finding a cure?

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Teenagers who are heavy drinkers can develop an addiction in one year

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It is not necessary to be intoxicated to have one’s driving performance affected

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Through various means, such as television, drinking is glamorized

What Comfort for the Victims?

FOR those confronted with the sudden loss of their loved ones in alcohol-related accidents, there is “no time . . . for saying ‘Goodbye,’ . . . or ‘I love you,’” states Janice Lord, author of Survivor Grief Following a Drunk-Driving Crash.

As we have seen, survivors have much to deal with: shock, horror, anger, and despair. The death of loved ones in such a manner creates a sense of permanent loss. The survivors may feel that the hurt they have suffered can never really be undone.

Realizing the pain that such loss causes, many authorities work for laws or conditions that might reduce the shockingly high number of casualties each year. For instance, one official pointed to character weaknesses in those guilty of drinking and driving and suggested setting up reporting centers for them where, through education and job and drug counseling, they ‘could be reinforced and strengthened’ to overcome their weaknesses.

What Is Really Needed?

However desirable this may be, no human or human agency can erase the hurt inflicted on the victims, nor can humans bring back the dead. What is needed to undo all the damage is far more than what humans can provide. What is really needed is an entirely different arrangement in the world, one that would not be based on today’s selfish and destructive ‘thrills at any cost’ concepts that take so many lives.

Is there any sound basis in hoping for that kind of a better world where such tragedies would be a thing of the past? Yes, there is. In fact, there is a sure hope of a new world here on earth where these tragedies will cease, a world in which even accident victims will be brought back to life. What indescribable joy when these are reunited with their loved ones! It will be a new world where, in time, the sad memories of past tragedies will forever be erased.

That hope of a new world is found in God’s inspired Word, the Bible, which states: “[God] will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces.” (Isaiah 25:8) This will include bringing back dead ones from the grave. As the apostle Paul wrote: “I have hope toward God . . . that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:15) Jesus and the apostles demonstrated this by resurrecting dead ones.​—Luke 7:11-16; 8:40-42, 49-56; John 11:1, 14, 38-45; Acts 9:36-42; 20:7-12.

Life on earth in a new world, including life for dead ones raised from the grave, will be beautifully crowned with human perfection. God’s healing power will make the minds and bodies of all living then completely sound: “No resident will say: ‘I am sick.’” “At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened, and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped. At that time the lame one will climb up just as a stag does, and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.”​—Isaiah 33:24; 35:5, 6; see also Matthew 15:30, 31.

The Bible describes the future condition of humankind on earth by stating that God “will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) The Provider of the marvelous benefits and happifying conditions to come declares: “The former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. But exult, you people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating.”​—Isaiah 65:17, 18.

By whose authority will all of this take place? By the authority and power of the grand Giver of hope, the Creator of the universe, Jehovah God. He guarantees in his Word that such a new system in which “righteousness is to dwell” will shortly replace this present selfish and violent system of things, a system already deep into its “last days.”​—2 Peter 3:13; 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13; Proverbs 2:21, 22.

Comfort From God’s Word

Jehovah’s Witnesses, like other people, are not immune to the tragedies of our times, nor do they, in this dangerous world, anticipate divine protection from death, accidental or otherwise. They know that this is not God’s will for the present. Ecclesiastes 9:11 states: “Time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.” Yet, the Witnesses have long directed attention to God’s Word, as his promises provide lasting comfort for all who embrace them.

One of Jehovah’s Witnesses was deeply affected when a drunk driver killed her brother-in-law and left his wife (her sister) mentally crippled from a severe head injury, so that she needed continual care. They too were Jehovah’s Witnesses. She relates:

“For the better part of a year, I was frequently in tears, and I was angry. I was angry at the young man who had caused this tragedy, angry at his parents for not keeping closer supervision of him. At times that anger was even directed toward God and the angels for not preventing this from happening. Such a waste of two fine people who were serving him!

“True, I knew that God wasn’t directly responsible and did not wish for such things to happen. But I had felt that he directed our every step and protected us from such harm. Now I realized that I had to get a more balanced view of this, and I began a search for the answers.

“It took a while before I could begin to shut out the hurt and so could reason on the matter. I had felt like Asaph, who stated in Psalm 73 that it seemed as if the wicked were the favored ones. But in that same psalm, God’s Word goes on to show that it is not so, that God does not favor the wicked, and that in his due time, they will come to ruin.

“I came to realize that my thinking, not God’s, was at fault. I was misapplying scriptures. God does not guarantee freedom from accidents, sickness, or death at this time but promises such blessings for the future, for his new world. Once I understood what God’s Word was really saying about God’s protecting us now in a spiritual way, not physically, then my anger gradually subsided. I could also now focus on the real source of calamities, Satan the Devil, who was a manslayer and a liar from the time he rebelled against God. The Bible makes clear that it is Satan who is the god of this world that is so filled with suffering.​—John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:4.

“Once I more fully appreciated the truth of why there is suffering, why God permits it, and how he will eliminate it, it became clear that God is not our adversary, but he is our salvation!

“Also, it was of great comfort to know that by means of his holy spirit, Jehovah sustains those who serve him. The Bible assures us that the holy spirit will supply ‘the power beyond what is normal.’ By this means he gives us the strength to bear the unbearable. And he also comforts us with the hope of seeing our loved ones in the resurrection. Thus we can triumph over adversity.”​—2 Corinthians 4:7.

A Fine Future

Tragedies of various types have happened to many, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, down through the years. This confirms the truth of God’s Word that time and unforeseen occurrence befall all. (Ecclesiastes 9:11) But the experiences of God’s servants also confirm the truth of God’s Word that Jehovah comforts and sustains his people in their time of need and also guarantees a fine future in his new world, where such calamities will be a thing of the past.

It is indeed comforting to know that in God’s righteous new world, there will be genuine love for one’s fellow humans and respect for the precious gift of life. These fine qualities will replace the selfishness and the exploitation of human weaknesses for profit that now saturate this world. Gone too will be this present world’s anxieties, pressures, and fears that push many into feeling the need for the excessive use of alcohol or the taking of other drugs.

Even now, Jehovah’s Witnesses make up a worldwide brotherhood that is bound together by the unifying force of love. (John 13:34, 35) Those who are part of this brotherhood provide a strong support system for helping individuals who have suffered loss. They are happy to assist any who desire to be comforted as they have been.​—2 Corinthians 1:3, 4.

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The Bible promises that there is going to be a resurrection of the dead