Drinking Someone Else to Death

Once every 50 minutes.  A fact.

At this moment, less than an hour from now, someone will be receiving a phone call that will change every other minute for the rest of their lives.  The call with the news that someone they love has died in a car accident involving alcohol—or the call telling them that someone they love was drinking and driving and caused someone else to die.

Nearly 11,000 people a year.  

That is how many people will die from an accident that involves drinking and driving.  Sometimes the driver, sometimes the passenger, and sometimes the person who just happens to be walking down the street and gets in the way.

The tragedy of drinking and driving accidents is too wide-spread in scope to take in all at once.  But it is worth some thought about the fuller consequences of drinking and driving, especially now when holiday festivities are in full swing.

Just can’t believe yourself when you make that commitment not to drink?  Make sure somebody else drives.  Take a cab, walk, or don’t go to that party.  And take away the keys of someone else, if you just aren’t sure they know when to stop the festivities.

Could you live with drinking someone else to death?