What can alcohol really do to your life?

FORT STEWART, Ga. - Let's talk about drunk driving and what effect it has on you and other people.

Alcohol can affect a person mentally and physically. There are many campaigns designed to eliminate drunk driving. One such campaign was started by a mother who lost her son in a crash that was caused by the negligence of a drunk driver.

Instead of grieving, the mother did a positive thing.

She, along with a host of concerned fathers, sisters, brothers, and other mothers all came as one and began a movement called MADD which stands for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Since 1980, MADD has saved 300,000 lives and still counting. The MADD program has also saved 27,000 young lives through passage of groundbreaking health laws. The program also saves a victim or survivor of drunk driving every nine minutes.

Even today with those alarming results, one in three people will still be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime. About two million drivers with three or more drunken driving offences share the roadways with other unsuspected adults and teens.

An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before his or her first arrest. This year, 10,839 people will die in drunk driving crashes, one every 50 minutes. Also, every minute one person is injured from an alcohol-related crash.

In closing, here are some additional facts about teenage drunk driving:

• Did you know one in five teens binge drink?

• Only one in 100 parents believe his or her teen binge drinks.

• One in three 8th graders drinks alcohol.

• Kids who start drinking young are seven times more likely to be in an alcohol-related crash.

• High school youth who use alcohol or other substances are five times more likely to drop out of school or believe good grades are not important.

Sergeant Demetris King, a 16-year police officer with the Sylvester Police Department, stated, "65 percent of most accidents are teen related while 25 percent of teenage accidents are alcohol and drug related. The other 25 percent didn't use a seat belt while the other 15 percent ended in death! Statistics show that accidents are the number one cause of teenage death in America next to suicide!"

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and one out of three are alcohol-related.

Teen alcohol use kills about 6,000 people each year, more than all illegal drugs combined.