More than a decade has passed since Mothers Against Drunk Driving started preaching its message, and even longer since society fully realized the dangers of mixing teenagers and drinking.
Now children are warned from their earliest years: Don`t drink and drive. But that message seems to be going unheeded, with youngsters apparently being influenced more by the sexy, come-hither models in beer ads than by the somber, finger-waving representatives from MADD.
In Illinois, the number of teenage drivers killed in vehicular accidents while legally drunk has dropped by about one-third in the past decade.
But groups such as the Schaumburg-based Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists noted that the number of teenagers also has declined sharply during that time, and they argued that the percentage of teens who drink and drive has remained relatively constant.
”The message is not sinking in,” said Jack Ashenfelter, principal of Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect, where students and parents last week confronted the issue anew after two girls were killed in a car crash that police at first said may have involved alcohol.
Alcohol tests on the 15-year-old driver have been completed, but police have declined to say whether the youngster had been drinking before the accident.
About 300 parents and students turned out Wednesday evening for a meeting to discuss the problem of teenage drinking and driving, as well as ways to prevent it.
”There is a heavier message from much of the media, such as beer companies, that drinking is wonderful,” Ashenfelter suggested.
He`s not alone in that belief, and the evidence to support him is everywhere. Consider the billboard that sits along the Northwest Tollway, its creators apparently oblivious to the irony of its message at a time when drunken-driving crashes remain one of the top killers of teenagers.
The sign reads: ”Molson Longnecks. Life`s Too Short.”
The hundreds of millions of dollars the alcoholic-beverage industry spends each year on advertising, which it contends is targeted at adults, create only part of alcohol`s allure.
Drinking liquor is still considered a rite of passage in American society, a rite whose appeal is enhanced by the fact that it`s an illegal act until age 21.
Moreover, there often does not appear to be the political will at the local and state levels to strictly enforce laws against selling alcohol to minors. And the implicit belief of teenagers that they are invulnerable does not help, either.
”It`s still that they think, `It will never happen to me,` ” said E.J. Oppermann, 17, a senior at Fremd High School in Palatine.
”I know a lot of kids who still drive when they`ve been drinking. They think they can handle it after a while.”
A U.S. surgeon general`s report released this year debunked the popular perception that teenagers drink only in groups as a result of peer pressure. The report said that of the 10.6 million students who drink, one in three drinks alone and 41 percent drink when they are upset because it makes them feel better.
”Broken relationships are a big part of it, and family problems,” said Aaron Rinsema, 14, a freshman at Timothy Christian High School in Elmhurst.
”Kids feel like there`s nothing else to turn to.”
Alcohol or drugs ”could be their only friend,” he said.
Taken together, social and marketing factors are tough competition for those fighting to reduce the number of teens killed on the road each year.
The number of Illinois drivers under 21 who were killed dropped to 121 last year from 209 in 1980, but opponents of drunken driving pointed out that the teenage population nationwide also has declined.
”A lot of people can claim big victories if you just look at the total number of deaths,” said Paul Froehlich, executive director of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists. ”That exaggerates the decline in drinking and driving among teenagers.”
It is no exaggeration that there is scarcely a high school in this country that has not experienced the trauma of students dying in alcohol-related crashes.
The carnage continues despite surveys in which most parents insist they have zero tolerance for alcohol use among young people.
In a recent Tribune poll of 1,200 northwest suburban residents, for instance, three out of four respondents said they think teenage drinking is always wrong.
Eighteen percent said it was all right as long as there is adult supervision.
In any case, efforts to fight teenage drinking and drunken driving seem to have fallen short.
”Education can help. It is a step in the right direction,” Ashenfelter said. But, ”Information itself is not enough. As parents and educators, we have not helped kids enough to make the right choices.”
Drunken-driving opponents contend that parents and teachers are not getting much help.
Legislators throttled attempts in last spring`s session to create a separate blood-alcohol limit for minors of 0.00 percent or 0.02 percent, down from the current 0.10 percent for all drivers.
Some say that despite well-publicized campaigns against drunken driving, such as the one Gov. Jim Edgar built his political career on, the political will does not exist to better enforce laws against drunken driving and the peddling of liquor to minors.
The surgeon general`s report, for example, showed that almost two-thirds of the junior high and high school students who drink nationwide buy their beverages, though the minimum drinking age nationwide is 21.
Since July 1, 1990, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission considered 10 cases where local liquor commissioners revoked, suspended or fined an establishment for selling alcohol to minors, according to Jim Adinamis, the commission`s chief legal counsel.
Of those, one penalty was reversed and three were dismissed by the commission because of an agreement between the parties or because the parties failed to show up for a hearing. In three cases, the commission reduced the number of days of suspension or reduced the penalty to suspension from revocation. Three penalties were affirmed outright.
”Whether a death resulted or didn`t, the sale to minors is illegal,”
Adinamis said. ”But people see the emotional side of things, and they get all hot and bothered. The commission can`t just see a sale to minors and be a rubber stamp for the mayor,” who in most municipalities acts as the local liquor commissioner.
Said Froehlich, of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, ”There`s a significant number of alcohol dealers who are selling to minors and doing it deliberately.”
State officials contend the problem isn`t theirs alone.
”Local officials have the primary and the front-line authority in enforcing liquor-control laws,” said James Long, director of the Illinois Department of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. ”There`s no question in my mind that there are communities who don`t take seriously enough the question of letting minors buy alcohol.
”That is the bigger problem. Unless that attitude is there that we`re not going to let kids drink alcohol, we`re not going to win the battle.”
Seeking to win the war, many parents in the last few years have formed networks in which they agree to prohibit minors from drinking alcoholic beverages or using drugs in their homes. Often, though, the efforts fail because some parents are reluctant to call one another and ensure the pledge is being followed.
But such failures do not deter other parents faced with the deaths of their children and their children`s classmates in alcohol-related crashes.
In Barrington, for instance, residents created a phone directory of parents last winter after 17-year-old Adam Hoyt, a popular football player, died in a drunken-driving accident.
While realizing the pitfalls of similar efforts, Debbie Villers, a leader of District 220`s parent-teacher organization, said the Barrington program looks promising.
”Most people want some guidelines. It`s a dangerous age,” Villers said. ”We`ve suffered last year here in town. We had our own tragedy. Now they`ve had one in Mt. Prospect. And I hope it makes a difference. I hope it counts for something.
”The year has gone by. But we haven`t forgotten. I don`t want to have to take my son to a funeral again.”
