Last
year my 18 year old son was in a car accident. When I got a phone call from the
hospital in the middle of the night my heart sank. I raced over to the
emergency room and was relieved to learn that he had only suffered a broken
arm, but when I smelled the booze on his breath and the glassy look in his eyes
I realized that this situation was much worse than I initially had anticipated.
The person in the other car was in surgery and the police were waiting outside
ready to take my son to jail for a booking. This was a scary night for all of
us involved and since that time it has been repeated visits to the courthouse,
and a spring and summer of learning teenage drunk driving facts and how to prevent our children from
adding to these statistics.
Read More About Drinking and Driving Among Teenagers.
- Alcohol
is popular among teenagers. Up to %70 of all teenagers drink alcoholic
beverages. Remember that is illegal for teenagers to even handle alcohol.
- Alcohol
is often introduced before a child reaches their teenage years. It is
believed that %10 of children between the ages of 12 and 13 drink
alcoholic beverages at least once a month.
- According
to statistics, most teen deaths in car accidents were related to alcohol
consumption.
- Every
22 minutes someone is fatally injured in alcohol related car accidents,
and most of these accidents involve people in the 15-24 age group. It is
almost a certainty that in your lifetime you or someone in your family
will be in an alcohol related motor vehicle accident. The statistics
support this fact.
What to do with these
facts?
These
facts really didn't make me feel any better knowing that he probably was
pressured into drinking at an early age by some of his “friends”. They always
seemed like good kids, but popular culture is pervasive and if you turn on the
television these days you often see video of people constantly celebrating and
drinking. This isn't the real world they are promoting, but our children have
no basis to compare it to anything else, so they often follow their role models
and most celebrated characters. I am not hear to preach about how to be a good
parent though because our world certainly makes it difficult on us all to raise
children to be responsible individuals.
Parents step up
I
can say that if you set up rules for your children, and are consistent with
them as well as your punishment for breaking them, then you have a made a good
start. It should be noted that alcohol is illegal in a teenagers hands. If they
and their friends are consuming alcohol on your property you will be held
liable. I've since learned that it would have been possible for the victim in
his accident to sue me had he consumed alcohol at my home and then caused this
accident. You or I could stand to lose everything by enabling children to
imbibe alcohol on our watch. Do what you can as parents to prevent teenage drunk driving accidents.
Visit
www.legal-yogi.com to learn of new teenage drunk driving solutions and to find
legal help should you or your children find themselves in trouble with the law.
Call them directly at 1-800-397-1755.
