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Cold Harsh Reality
ZANESVILLE -- Jill Hammersley and her husband, Mike, watched the MedFlight helicopter hover in a cornfield just 500 feet in front of their home.
Inside was their son.
In the wee hours of Christmas Eve 2001, the 17-year-old boy had been returning from a holiday celebration at his best friend's house. For the special occasion, his curfew had been extended to 12:30 a.m.
At an intersection, the boy's black Oldsmobile Intrigue was struck by an underage drinker. He suffered internal bleeding, a cracked pelvis and nerve damage in his brain.
"I always thought drunk drivers were a problem somewhere else," his mother said. "Not on my doorstep."
Last year, 604 people in Ohio died in alcohol-related traffic accidents.
One of them was named Cody Hammersley.
Not a statistic
The 17-year-old River View High School student was a gifted athlete, playing soccer, basketball and baseball. He had a girlfriend and a group of close buddies. And he loved the holidays.
Cody's mother remembers how the tall young man helped string up the Christmas lights and decorate the tree last year. Then he did an excited dance around all the colorful gifts that bore his name.
"He kept laughing and saying, 'This year Christmas is all about me,'" Jill said, her voice cracking. "But truly every Christmas is going to be all about him, because he's missing."
Those Christmas gifts were never received. They sit -- unwrapped and boxed -- in Cody's bedroom.
Now Jill wonders how many other parents will know the pain she is feeling.
"You just can't believe this is your life. You wake up every day and wonder how someone could be so selfish," she said. "A lot of families are wiped out because someone got behind the wheel and thought they could drive. And our society is willing to say it's just an accident."
Nationally, the rate of alcohol-positive drivers involved in fatal crashes increased 32.6 percent from 1996 through 1998 to 1999 through 2001.
"It's so disgusting. Alcohol-related deaths are an acceptable way to kill someone, because everyone thinks they didn't intend to do it," Jill said. "They accept this murder by saying it was an accident."
Those people know what to expect each time they get into the driver's seat, Jill insists.
"I don't consider anything that happened that night as an accident. Everything that young man did that night was against the law, and he ultimately killed my son for it."
How Ohio ranks
With alcohol-related deaths on the rise, Ohio was handed a grade of B-minus on the Rating the States 2002 report card, released recently by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the GuideOne Foundation, an insurance company.
Sixty percent of each state's grade was based on its overall alcohol-related fatality statistics and priority drunk driving laws. The remaining percent was based on political leadership, blood-alcohol testing and records, law enforcement programs, administrative measures and criminal sanctions, underage drinking prevention and victim issues.
Ohio ranked lowest in the category of fatality trends, receiving a "D" grade. That comes from the increase of alcohol-positive drivers involved in fatal crashes.
"The most devastating loss in this entire life is the loss of a child," Jill said. "So when I hear these statistics, I think of the other mothers and all the families that suffer. It breaks my heart."
Overall, the United States was given an average "C."
MADD President Wendy Hamilton said that "C" stands for "complacency."
"The war on drunk driving stalled," Hamilton said in a press release from the organization. "We've got about 300 people getting killed every single week in this country in completely preventable crashes."
The number of deaths rose last year after holding steady for nearly a decade. There were 17,448 drunken driving deaths in 2001, up from 16,572 in 1999, the last time MADD conducted its "Rating the States" survey.
"At the rate we are going, one-third of Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some point in their lives," said Jim Wallace, president and CEO of GuideOne Insurance. "That is unacceptable."
Typically those rates rise during Thanksgiving weekend, with an average of 67 alcohol-related traffic deaths each day over the past three Thanksgiving holidays. The National Safety Council predicts 575 people will be killed and 30,500 injured in highway crashes during the 2002 Thanksgiving weekend, with up to 50 percent of the fatalities related to alcohol-impaired driving.
But, as Jill is quick to point out, drunk driving is not a concern only at this time of year.
"This isn't necessarily a holiday-oriented thing. It's a lifetime thing," she said. "I guess I was too naive. I always thought drunk drivers weren't out until the bars closed."
That kind of thinking can mislead people into a false sense of security.
"My mentality was that as long as my kids were in the house at a certain time, they would be fine," she said. "I have three older girls who were all away from home, and my concern was always with them -- not with Cody coming home from his best friend's house."
The recent MADD study -- and the experience of the Hammersleys -- proves drunk driving remains a very real threat.
The District of Columbia received a "D-plus" on MADD's report, while North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina and South Dakota received a "D." Montana was the only state to fail.
California received the highest grade -- a "B-plus," followed by Georgia, New York, North Carolina and Oregon, which received "B" grades. No state earned an "A" on this year's report.
The future
Drunk driving offenders continue plague this area.
"I see hundreds of them," said Jay Vinsel, Muskingum County assistant prosecuting attorney. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't deal with one."
Vinsel particularly sees a lot of what he calls "frequent fliers" -- multiple DUI offenders.
"There are too many people who make some pretty bad decisions when drinking and deciding to get behind the wheel of a car," he said.
Convicting such DUI offenders has always been a priority, said Judge David Hostetler of Coshocton Municipal Court.
"I don't do anything at the municipal court more important than that," he said. "And that's why I don't permit plea bargaining for expeditious purposes on those."
Coshocton is headed in the right direction, having one of the highest conviction rates per DUI cases filed.
"I guess that comes from a number of things," said Judge David Hostetler of Coshocton Municipal Court. "My policy on plea bargaining, effective law enforcement and good prosecutors. It takes all of those things."
However, there are some gray areas in creating tougher DUI legislation. For example, MADD supports setting the illegal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for non-commercial drivers age 21 and older at 0.08. The current legal limit is 0.10.
For Hostetler, who does not support the reduction, it's a matter of practicality.
"We've reached a point where enforcement is problematic. I've got an overflowing jail, which at any given time, seems to be filled with multiple-time offenders of DUI," he said. "I'm struggling to enforce the laws we've got -- it'll be tough to deal with new ones. And that's a pragmatic opinion, not a value judgment."
For the Hammersleys, the passage of 0.08 legislation is a crusade. The driver who struck their son's car tested at a BAC limit of 0.82.
"I miss Cody. His sisters and his dad, well, it's been devastating on them," Jill said. "But it's not about being upset about my child. It's that so many people lose their lives to this every year, and they shouldn't. Something needs to be done."
Alcohol didn't just steal a life from the Hammersleys -- it also changed the way they lead their own lives. Like taking a tougher stance on alcohol.
"While I'm really happy people are choosing to not drink and drive, what you're really telling them is that it's OK to drink to have a good time," Jill said. "Did we ever drink in the past? Yeah.
"Will we ever take a drink again? Never."
People have countered that alcohol doesn't kill people, Jill said. They tell her it's like the old saying about guns: Guns don't kill people. People do.
"It makes me sick, because you can argue this until you're blue in the face," she said. "But do they use a gun to unwind at night? Do they take a gun to a party? Do they use a gun to relieve stress?
"Guns don't impair you. Alcohol impairs you. And alcohol killed my son."
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