During the early morning of Sept. 1, 2008, five hungry college students piled into a car in search of a snack. Shortly after munching down, they headed back to the SMU campus. But little did they know, the drive would stay in their memories forever.
“I remember driving and slowing down. The stoplight turned green, so I drove through,” Steven Kitt, sophomore business major, said. “Next thing I knew, I woke up and the windshield was shattered with a big hole in the passenger’s side, a fire was coming from the engine compartment, and glass was in my eyes. Pieces of the dashboard were in my lap, and I couldn’t move the steering wheel. Despite all of that, everyone said I was pretty lucid minutes later.”
That morning, Kitt and the four other passengers in his car, a newlywed couple in another car and drunk driver Uriel Perez Palacios with his passenger, all collided on Mockingbird Lane.
According to the Dallas Morning News, “The wreck occurred about 2 a.m. Monday after a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy pulled over Mr. Palacios for allegedly weaving through traffic…on North Central Expressway. As the deputy approached the vehicle, Mr. Palacios drove away with his lights off…and exited at Mockingbird Lane.” There, he “sped through a red light” and crashed into the two other cars. Palacios had four previous Driving While Intoxicated arrests.
Tragically, the newlywed couple died on the scene, and Kitt suffered from a broken humerus and a broken ulna in addition to losing a significant amount of skin on his left arm. Two other passengers in Kitt’s car were also taken to the hospital.
Stories such as this might sound familiar to Texans. Although studies show that drunk driving is on the decline, Texas has the most alcohol-related traffic fatalities. In 2008, Harris County had the highest number of fatalities (354) due to drunk drivers, and Dallas County came in second with 202.
Kelley Sourbeer, North Texas’s Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) youth program specialist, suspects that Texas has the most drunk driving deaths each year because “Texas is a large state, and the fact is that a drunk driver can statistically drive drunk many times before they get pulled over.”
According to Texas state law, the legal limit for intoxication is .08 BAC (blood alcohol content) for people 21 and above, and .00 BAC for those under 21 (which means it’s illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to drive after consuming any amount of alcohol.) Although there are increased consequences for every DWI offense, many citizens, including the Flower Mound state senator, don’t believe they are harsh enough.
Although other officials with her drive might be scarce, there are a variety of activist groups, such as MADD, that try to raise awareness about the severity of drinking and driving.
According to the Texas MADD website, MADD helped implement a variety of changes within Texas law including changing the legal drinking age to 21 (1986) and applying a “zero tolerance” for underage drinking (1997).
Although the “zero tolerance” law is intended to steer under 21-year-olds away from drinking and driving, it still doesn’t stop them. According to a 2004 DSHS (Department of State Health Services) Texas School Survey on Substance Abuse, 24 percent of high school seniors said they operated a vehicle after having several drinks at least once in the last year. That accounts for 80,000 drunk drivers on the road in a specific year.
Shannon Graves, a program director for Community Coalition, a group that strives to stop underage drinking in North Texas, recently told the Dallas Morning News, “Every time alcohol gets into the hands of a kid, it’s because an adult allows that to take place. It’s always discouraging and disheartening to hear.”
Sourbeer said she has done a lot to help prevent underage drunk driving in the area. “I have spoken to thousands of students about alcohol and what it does to the brain and body if consumed under 21,” Sourbeer said. “I have also conducted victim impact panels [when a group of victims/survivors get together and tell their stories to a large crowd] for teens that have gotten an alcohol related ticket.”
SMU has also tried to raise awareness about the severity of drinking and driving.
John Sanger, director of the Center for Alcohol & Drug Abuse Prevention at SMU, said they have held a variety of “programs on campus, including a drunk driving simulator, demonstrations of the Guardian Interlock system for those convicted of DWI’s and MADD’s wrecked car display” so students can see the consequences that their actions could have.
So, what’s the best thing to do if you know someone has been drinking or if you’re planning on going out?
“If students suspect their driver has been drinking, we strongly suggest that they not ride with that person and find a sober driver or take a taxi,” Sanger said.
Unfortunately, in Kitt’s situation the accident couldn’t have been prevented. The aftermath is that Kitt will have a metal plate and eight screws in his left arm for the rest of his life, let alone the memory of the accident. “If I go out with friends, I’ll always be the designated driver, or not drive or call a cab,” Kitt said. He would rather “pay $15 than see someone get in an accident or die.”
