San Diego DUI criminal defense attorney story by young person

Responsible young person looking for California DUI solution

Solution needed for teenage drinking and driving problem in Palo Alto.

It was around 3 a.m. on a typical summer night and everyone was having a good time, until Ken, Paly grad of 2007 whose name has been changed, told me he was leaving Thomas' house. I asked how he was getting home as he drunkenly gave me a good-bye hug. He said he was driving and 'not to worry, I'll speed and swerve and be home in like five minutes.' I told Ken that was the dumbest thing I had ever heard and stated that he was way too drunk to drive as I unsuccessfully tried to take his keys. Ken laughed, and told me he'd call me tomorrow night. By the time tomorrow night rolled around, Ken was in the intensive care unit at Stanford Hospital.

He had wrapped his car around a tree on a road in Portola Valley, a road that he had driven on many times while intoxicated. He had felt confident driving those roads in any state of mind. The next time I saw him, Ken told me he was lucky to be found alive by the paramedics that cut him out of his truck.

In 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 5,699 teenagers age 16-20 died as a result of drunk driving. However, I feel as though that number does not accurately depict how frequently teenagers drunk drive.

Some advocates against drunk driving are trying to take action against drunk drivers, but not in an aggressive manner. Programs such as Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) aim to reach the general public with their outspoken message against drunk driving. According to its website, SADD aims to provide "prevention and intervention tools" for teens facing difficult decisions.

However, individuals such as Ken believe that part of the problem with underage drinking and driving is a feeling of immortality in teenagers. He thinks that it affets a teen's judgment when it comes to drunk driving.

Ken regrets his decision to drunk drive, and believes he has learned a lesson from his actions.

"Drunk driving is the stupidest thing anyone can do," Ken says. "If you do it, you're taking other people's lives in your own hands when you're not in any state of mind to be responsible of anything. I wasn't capable of making a good decision that night."

However, Ken and many other teenagers also feel as though laws are set up in ways which discourages teenagers from learning to drink carefully, such as in Dan's case.

Dan, a senior at Paly this year, is in the process of having his license revoked because he had a .01 blood alcohol level when he was pulled over for driving 40 mph in a 25 mph zone.

"I was with my mom at a 49ers game and she let me have a beer," Dan says. "She was really drunk, so I drove home because she couldn't. When I got pulled over I was like are you kidding me? A .01 and you're taking my license away?"

Dan said the police decided not to put the DUI on his permanent record, but they will suspend his license for a year.

Although there are teenagers who abuse alcohol, and drive after doing so, it is the parent's responsibility to teach their children to drink responsibly and learn their limits. How are parents supposed to do this when it is technically illegal for them to give their child even a sip of wine at dinner?

Teenagers need to be taught. In this day and age, if their parents cannot legally teach their child to drink responsibly then the teen will face many incidents in high school where they see everyone binge drinking and think it's 'cool' and try it.

Ken believes that until drinking laws in America are changed, teenagers will not learn to drink responsibly.

"Parents in America don't teach their kids how to drink like parents do in Europe," Ken says. "The parents think, 'My kid won't drink until they're 21 so I don't have to worry about it.'"

Teenage drinking is a fight that will never fully be settled in my opinion. No parties involved will ever be fully happy with the laws in place. However, I think it is a community's responsibility to help solve the drunken driving problem.

The solution is not stricter enforcement of teenage drinking or more party busts, because if a teenager is determined to drink, he or she will find a way.

The solution is more options for teenagers to get home safely. Although in Palo Alto Saferide is available for teens to get home, it has very unreliable hours of operation. People rarely know when the cars are running.

Sam Siegel, a senior at Paly, who periodically volunteers for SafeRide says that Red Cross tries very hard to keep Saferide's operation hours routine but finds it difficult due to a lack of volunteers.

"SafeRide could definitely use more adults to drive. I think they want SafeRide to be run by teens, but I think it would be good [to have adults] as a backup system."

If SafeRide is not running, a teen could call a taxi, not many teens want to spend their money on the cab ride.

If there was a strong public pull for safer ways for drunk teenagers and adults to get home, there would be far less drunk driving due to the other means of transportation home for those who are drunk.

"I think Saferide is sick and a good idea," Ken says. "But it's not reliable. If it were more reliable, less people would drive drunk. I wish there was some form of reliable public transportation to and from my house."

Other cities around the country have already realized the need for public transportation for the intoxicated.

In Atlanta, Georgia, a program named Safe Ride America is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to provide a service that ensure that there are no drunk drivers on their road. Christy Tissle, a volunteer for SafeRide America says that, to her, having safe roads is the most important thing she can do for her community.

"We basically offer a service that allows anyone to call us and we will drive their car home for them," Tissle says. "We want to make our roads safe and all it takes are a few volunteer hours from everyone in the community."

According to its Web site, the mission of SafeRide America is to "get impaired drivers off the road, no matter what the reasons for their impairment."

By providing this service, SafeRide America says that it "effectively reduces the number of impaired driving arrests, crashes, injuries and deaths."

On the SafeRide America Web site a customer, Andie, says that when she lived in Atlanta she "depended on SafeRide America" and since she has moved to San Diego she has realized "There isn't a SafeRide America in San Diego...and there needs to be!"

Although there is a Saferide in Palo Alto, it is not nearly as dependable as SafeRide America. Volunteers for SafeRide in Palo Alto feel as though it would be hard to find enough volunteers to run SafeRide 24 hours a day.

There are drunk driving problems all around the United States, but if in Palo Alto everyone contributes some of their time to volunteer for SafeRide, we could make our roads as safe as possible for anyone who drives them.

If we band together to provide safe, free, easy and reliable access to anyone under the influence, there is the possibility of a virtual end to drunk driving.

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