In all my years as a pastor, I never dealt with anything more tragic than drunk driving accidents. There was a young man who got drunk and ran into an 18-wheeler. Police couldn't tell if his vehicle was a car or a pickup truck until they traced it using what was left of the license plate.
Parents blame themselves for letting their children have the keys to the car.
Survivors deal not only with their injuries but the grief at losing a friend and the guilt that comes from being spared. In 1996, there were 228 people killed in Arkansas in alcohol-related crashes, and 3,703 injured. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, about two in five Americans will be involved in accidents involving alcohol at some point in their lives. In the past decade, four times as many Americans died in drunk driving accidents as were killed in the Vietnam War. We'll never prevent all drunk driving deaths, but we can surely reduce them.