OC HIGH: STUDENT NEWS AND VIEWS : Give the Gift of Life: Don’t Drink and Drive

With end-of-the-year and New Year’s parties coming up, this is a reminder to buckle up and avoid the drinks.

Often statistics don’t mean much to us, but these should:

In 1993, there were 902 injuries and 62 deaths involving California teen-agers, ages 15 to 18, who were driving under the influence. Just among 15-year-olds, there were three fatal accidents and 29 that resulted in injuries. This is a difficult fact to accept, considering that 15-year-olds can’t legally drive. Then again, they can’t legally drink either.

If these statistics don’t faze you, read on.

The number of teens--drivers or passengers--involved in alcohol-related accidents in California in 1993:

Age 15, 9 fatalities, 432 injuries.

Age 16, 24 fatalities, 720 injuries.

Age 17, 23 fatalities, 924 injuries.

Age 18, 40 fatalities, 1,278 injuries.

These were all teen-agers who could have been your friends.

It is against the law to drink if you are under 21. If you care about your friends, it’s your responsibility to warn and to help them. If they don’t stop, their drinking could catch up with them. They too could become another statistic.

Last New Year’s weekend (from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3) 30 people were killed in alcohol-related accidents in California.

There is no way to predict how many accidents will occur this New Year’s. But just a month ago, during the Thanksgiving holiday, 60 people in California died in traffic accidents. Nine of those were pedestrians.

Let’s make an effort not to increase the statistics for 1994. Over the holidays (or at any time, for that matter), don’t drink and drive. Instead, buckle up and drive safely.

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