Published: September 16, 2008 04:25 pm      

Collective renews debate over legal drinking age

DANVILLE — — There are hundreds of people assembled in one of the halls at the Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds and Conference Complex.

They represent a societal spectrum. Young and old. Male and female. Blue collar and white collar. What they have in common is that all of them have been charged with drunk driving.

They’re here because they have to be. Part of their probation stipulates they attend Survivor Speakout, a tri-monthly program coordinated by the Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office and Sheriff’s Department.

Attendees are subjected to graphic photos of car crash scenes that involved alcohol consumption. Convicted drunk drivers who killed others as a result of their deeds tearfully recall the night that forever changed their lives in gutwrenching detail. Other speakers castigate the audience in hopes their unflinching message keeps them from repeating their mistakes.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work.

“Every three months I see 300 to 400 different people sitting here,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Don Donaldson, who works in the department’s enforcement division. “Sometimes I see the same faces.”

Another provision is that those attending Survivor Speakout can’t have any alcohol in their systems. Seems simple enough. And yet Donaldson says they average three or four arrests every meeting for this. This time there was only one — a woman who had a .19 Blood Alcohol Concentration (.08 is the legal limit). She claimed she used mouthwash before coming and swallowed some of it. But that reading was taken 20 minutes after she arrived.

There also was one underage driver at the gathering. His mother had to accompany him. Something like Survivor Speakout compels the question: If this many adults willfully break the law when it comes to drinking and driving, what makes anyone think the legal drinking age should be lowered?

The Amethyst Initiative wants to at least renew the debate. Named after the purple gemstone from Greek mythology that was supposed to combat the negative effects of intoxication, the Amethyst Initiative is a consortium of college and university presidents who believe the current legal drinking age of 21 is not working as intended. Leaders of two Indiana schools — Bobby Fong of Butler University and Susan DeWine of Hanover College — have signed on to the petition, which includes more than 100 institutions nationwide.

“Twenty-one is not working,” the Amethyst Initiative said in a collective statement. Among their reasons for believing that: A surreptitious culture of binge-drinking has developed on and around the nation’s college campuses; adults who are younger than 21 are considered mature enough to vote and serve in the military, but not to drink alcohol; and use of fake IDs and the widespread occurrence of underage drinking deteriorates regard for the law.

Amethyst isn’t explicitly calling for the legal drinking age to be lowered to 18, but it does support “an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age,” as well as “invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol,” adding that education that mandates abstinence only hasn’t resulted in a meaningful change in behavior among students.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one of the strongest proponents of the 21 law, responded to Amethyst’s “misguided initiative” that’s based on “deliberately misleading information to confuse the public on the effectiveness of the 21 law.”

“Underage and binge drinking is a tough problem, and we welcome an honest discussion about how to address this challenge,” said MADD National President Laura Dean-Mooney in a press release. “But that discussion must honor the science behind the 21 law, which unequivocally shows that (it) has reduced drunk driving and underage and binge drinking.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates almost a thousand lives have been saved annually since the legal drinking age was raised to 21. Ronald Davis, a past president of the American Medical Association, offered a scientific explanation for the law.

“A young adult’s brain is a work in progress, marked by significant development in areas responsible for learning, memory, complex thinking, planning, inhibition, and emotional regulation,” he said in a statement cited by MADD.

Here at home, the dangers of alcohol abuse are driven home in cogent testimonials.

Brenda (she didn’t give her last name), is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She hadn’t received so much as a traffic ticket before the day in September 2002 when she killed a man and injured his finance and herself while driving drunk.

“I wonder if you all know how lucky you are,” she said to the gathering.

Six years later Brenda is still too injured to work. She was sentenced to eight years in prison, but was assigned to work release instead because of her health. The man she killed left behind three young daughters. Now ages 16, 14, and 12, they were at Survivor Speakout with their mother that night, sobbing through Brenda’s speech.

“It never goes away,” Brenda said. “I have to live with it every day.”

Michael Bosworth is in a similar hell. In October 2005 he crashed his car into a telephone pole while driving drunk. The impact killed his 29-year-old passenger, Damon Comer, and left him in a coma. Regaining consciousness weeks later, Bosworth had severe brain and physical impairments. To this day he still suffers paralysis and walks with an unsteady gait. That seems to be the least of his worries.

“I am living with a guilt that is truly unbearable,” Bosworth said. “My life will forever be a nightmare.”

The same can be said for Damon’s sister, an unwitting victim in this tragedy, who also spoke at the Survivor Speakout. Calling Bosworth’s accident an “act of absolute selfishness,” she described in poignant detail how her whole world came crashing down following Damon’s untimely death. From having to write her younger brother’s obituary to burying him with his favorite childhood toy, she lamented how three years later she’s still in survival mode.

“There won’t be another easy day,” she said.

Whether the legal drinking age should be lowered or stay the same, one message was oft-repeated at this occasion.

“If you want to drink, drink,” said Steve Pyatte, one of the event’s speakers. “If you want to drive, drive. But don’t put them together.”

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Online:

www.amethystinitiative.org

www.madd.org



wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com