THIRD-YEAR student Liana Kuyumcuyan was killed around 10:30 p.m. Jan. 29 in a car accident. She was returning to Grounds from Wintergreen with friends after an evening of skiing. While the investigation surrounding her death continues, it's appropriate in light of this tragedy to address an issue that many students don't consider very often when driving around Grounds - automobile safety.The horrifying reality of driving is that each time you drive, you put your life on the line, subject to your own split-second decisions and those of other drivers on the road. As a well-educated group at one of the most prestigious universities in the country, our community constantly should keep in mind the risks involved and the choices we make each time we set off on the road by closely examining the telling statistics.
Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs arguably is the most potentially fatal combination of circumstances a driver can subject him or herself to. The cost of losing one's life on the road due to use of alcohol or drugs is tremendous. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1998, 11,027 crashes involving an automobile occupant or pedestrian with a positive blood alcohol content (BAC) were reported in Virginia alone. Even levels of alcohol in the blood below the legal limit of .08 grams per deciliter (about 2-3 beers in 1 hour) resulted in 54 deaths and nearly 1,500 injuries.
Apart from the devastation in the quality of life lost, financial burdens are massive. The average cost to a person in Virginia who survived an alcohol related car accident was $82,000. This breaks down to $34,000 in monetary costs, and $48,000 in quality of life costs - such as pain, suffering and lawsuit settlements. As a result of being under the influence of alcohol, 11,027 lives were forever changed, or even lost. These statistics are meaningless, however, if one doesn't attach a message to them: Do not drink and drive. Find other options to get where you need to go. Get a designated driver to take you. Call Escort Service. Walk with a group of sober and responsible friends. Or, if you're at a friend's place, just stay put. Death and injury are not worth it.
Somebody once said that the two best things you can do for yourself in life are brush your teeth and wear your seatbelt. Seatbelt use is an incredibly simple and convenient way to preserve life in the event of a car accident. According to the NHTSA, unbelted drivers account for 75 percent of all deaths in automobile accidents involving impaired drivers under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Additionally, statistics and research suggest that having a mandatory seatbelt law can reduce alcohol-related fatalities by 10 percent. Nationwide during 2000, the NHTSA estimates that seatbelt use saved some 11,889 lives.
Pulling a metal buckle downward and across one's body a distance of about two and half feet can save thousands of lives. Everyone should do it. Yet everyone knows at least someone who doesn't wear his or her seatbelt, or perhaps as often as he or she should. Wear your seatbelt. Wear it every single time you get into your car, truck, SUV or whatever. It's surprising how much sadness a strap of cloth and synthetic fibers can prevent.
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Imagine you're on your way back to, say, Northern Virginia. You're driving along Route 29 North at about two in the morning, and you can feel your eyelids getting heavy. At that moment, you're in a very dangerous situation. Each year in the United States, falling asleep while driving kills 1,550 individuals. Another 40,000 are injured, (or roughly every person in Charlottesville) and 100,000 accidents take place in total.
The accidents, however, do not involve people driving under the influence. The majority of the time these drivers are driving between midnight and six in the morning, alone or with one passenger, and simply veer off the road and strike something - a person, a tree, another car - without an effort to avoid the crash. If you feel you're getting fatigued on the road, stop. Get off the road. Get some coffee or soda. Do something to ensure that you'll be alert for the rest of the trip, even if it means giving in and stopping at a motel. Having your life destroyed because you were stubborn and thought you could keep driving doesn't stack up well against getting to your destination a little bit early.
Always bear in mind the great impact of driving on your life. While many more factors play into driving and safety than those named here, my hope is that by reminding us of these factors and remembering Liana, we both can recognize our own flimsy mortality, and recall that making a poor choice on the road can lead to a very permanent end.
(Austen Givens' column usually appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at agivens@cavalierdaily.com.)
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