|
|
*Links*
Home
*Story 1
*Story 2
*Pictures
*Survey
*Affiliates*
*Open Source Web Design*
Template Central
Yahoo
Google
Focus Adolescent Services
Drive Home Safe.com
|
Drinking Takes Another Life
(Greg Ott
December 13, 1976 - October 13, 1994)
-- Greg was the younger of my two boys. His nickname was Bubba and he was always a quiet young man. He was an honor student for four years and was looking forward to graduation in 1995. He played defense #54 on the school football team. Greg was an excellent athlete. He had great potential, but he got into a truck with some friends after school one day. The driver was drunk and at a high rate of speed, he lost control of the truck going around a curve and hit a tree. There were five young men in that truck, all around the age of 17. Greg was the only one killed. He is greatly missed and loved by so many.
- Betty Watson
The Facts
(Sep 31, 2002) --
The U.S. Surgeon General reports that life expectancy has improved in the U.S. over the past 75 years for every age group except one: the death rate for 15- to 24-year-olds is higher today than it was 20 years ago. The leading cause of death is drunk and drugged driving. Of the 20 million junior and senior high school students in America, half drink monthly. Whether it's New Year's Eve, the prom or just a normal weekend pizza party that your teen might attend, there is a good chance that there will be drinking. Trends in alcohol involvement in fatal crashes can be monitored through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a census of virtually all fatal crashes in the United States. During the 1980s, percentages of fatally injured drivers with high BACs (0.08 percent or more) declined among drivers of all ages. Reductions among young drivers were greatest, in part because of changing alcohol purchasing age laws. In 1982, fewer than half of the states had purchasing requirements for 21 year-olds, and 49 percent of all fatally injured drivers younger than 21 had high BACs. This statistic declined dramatically as states adopted older purchasing ages, and by 1995 it had declined to 24 percent, the biggest improvement for any age group. This decline ended in 1995.
|
