In the editorial above we talk about teenagers and the mistakes they make, particularly the tragic mistakes they can make when they’re behind the wheel of a car. Adults make mistakes too. Even smart, aware adults. We had a terrible reminder of that recently.
In 1998, DuPage County prosecutor Jane Radostits handled one of the most horrendous DUI cases seen in years. Three Waubonsie Valley High School students and a widowed mother of three were killed by a drunk driver, Randy Visor. In the closing arguments of that trial, Radostits told the jury that “calling this a tragedy is insufficient.”
“The tragedy is that it could have been avoided,” she said.
That made it so hard to fathom what happened a couple of weeks ago on a Friday afternoon. Radostits’ car, traveling more than 80 m.p.h., collided head-on with another vehicle and clipped two other cars in unincorporated Winfield Township. Radostits, 46, died at about 3:45 p.m. A week later, DuPage County State’s Atty. Joseph Birkett revealed what he called “human failure in its highest form”: Radostits’ blood-alcohol level was 0.25 percent — more than three times the legal limit.
Let’s not forget, Radostits wasn’t the only victim here. As with most DUI crashes, there were others injured. In this case, another driver was hospitalized with broken arms and legs.
Even after years of ad campaigns and police crackdowns, there is still far too much of this “human failure” known as drunk driving.
Alcohol-related traffic fatalities have declined in the last 20 years, thanks to tougher laws, better enforcement and safer cars. But that decline has stalled in recent years. One study in 2005 delivered some somber news: More Americans were admitting to driving while drunk. After a slow decline in the mid-1990s, people said they were drinking and driving more often, the researchers found.
It doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 60. When you drink and drive, you’re gambling with your life and with others. Please, don’t take the chance.
