Arrest Post-Mortem : Young Drivers Get a Graphic Look at Why Being Drunk Is Dangerous

Even after her arrest for drunk driving earlier this year, Lisa, a 19-year-old college student, said she would still go out and drive “a little bit buzzed” on beer now and then.

But after a court-ordered visit last week to the Orange County coroner’s office, during which she witnessed an autopsy of an alcoholic woman, viewed bodies mangled in traffic accidents and saw gory pictures of people whose deaths were related to drinking, the San Juan Capistrano resident did two things.

She rushed to the restroom to throw up, and she came away from the experience swearing she would never drink and drive again. “It worked for me. I’ll never do it again,” Lisa said.

Court and coroner’s officials are hoping the same kind of sobering shock therapy will work for youthful convicted drunk drivers in northern Los Angeles County. Last month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution by Supervisor Mike Antonovich that supported introducing the program, now used in the Orange County and Long Beach municipal courts, in the Antelope Valley.

Under the so-called Youthful Drunk Driver Visitation Program authorized by the Legislature in 1987, people age 18 to 25 who are convicted of drunk driving can be sentenced to visit the morgue and hospital emergency rooms. Usually, they are first-time offenders.

Officials say the two Southern California programs have been effective in reducing repeat offenses. Of the nearly 700 participants so far, officials say few have been rearrested for drunk driving.

“It’s a simple dose of reality, and it shows the consequences of what can happen if these kids drink and drive,” said Richard Rodriguez, the senior deputy investigator for the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Department and host of the monthly sessions at the county’s Santa Ana morgue.

In 1989 in Los Angeles County, 408 people were killed and 13,516 injured in traffic accidents caused by drivers who had been drinking. In Orange County, 93 people died and 3,367 were injured in such accidents. Officials say that drivers in their late teens and early 20s were disproportionately responsible for those accidents.

No comprehensive tallies are available to determine whether the programs reduce repeat offenses, officials say. The Long Beach program has been operating for only a year and the Orange County program about three years.

Also, there are skeptics, surprisingly including the judge credited with starting the state’s first such program in Sacramento about four years ago. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Gunther said he still supports the visits, but now believes more long-term alcohol counseling is also needed.

“As with any diversion therapy, it’s only going to have a limited effect,” Gunther said.

In Orange County, Rodriguez said more judges are sentencing offenders to the program and he expects it to expand to two monthly sessions with about 30 participants at each by January. In Los Angeles County, the coroner now is host to several offenders from the Long Beach program every Saturday for about two hours.

The Orange County program is unique in the state because the participants typically watch most or all of an autopsy, generally of someone whose death was linked to alcohol. They see only a glimpse of that in Los Angeles, where coroner’s officials say they do not have as much time to spend with the youths.

Rodriguez says viewing autopsies shocks young people and shows them the body’s vulnerabilities.

“It’s something that will be etched in their minds forever,” Rodriguez said. “I want the kids to understand the pain these people go through. If you make alcohol part of your life, it’s going to take you down.”

After a recent four-hour session with Rodriguez, a group of young drunk-driving offenders emerged convinced that the program works. “It was pretty heavy duty. I learned how serious it is to drink and drive. People will die if you do it,” said Lisa, who declined to give her last name.

Others agreed. “It definitely works. It scares . . . you,” said Jerome Duncan, 20, of Bellflower. Asked what he learned, Reginald Parchman, 22, of El Toro said, “If you drink . . . walk.”

In addition to the autopsy, during which the chest and skull are cut open and organs are removed, participants in the Orange County program also see dozens of toe-tagged bodies stored in a cooler, and many graphic photos and slides.

Although some have become woozy at the sight and a few have vomited, Rodriguez said none of the 459 participants in the Orange County program since 1988 have ever complained or objected to the program.

The program run by the Long Beach Municipal Court has sent about 240 young offenders to either the Los Angeles County morgue downtown or to two Long Beach hospitals, or both, since its start in August, 1989, said Mary Armstead, the county health investigator who coordinates the program.

Most offenders in Orange County and Long Beach are given a choice whether to participate. But in Long Beach, the judges make completing the program attractive by offering the first-time offenders who agree to attend restricted licenses that allow driving to school and work, instead of one-year license suspensions.

Offenders usually are required to write an essay telling the court about their experiences.

In both programs, first-time drunk-driving offenders typically still are required to pay fines of $1,200 or more and are placed on probation--as are other first-time offenders who do not participate.

SOBERING THOUGHTS These quotations are drawn from essays written by youths ordered to attend the Youthful Drunk Driver Visitation Program at the Los Angeles County morgue by the Long Beach Municipal Court.

“I had never realized how many people die from drinking and driving until I saw the rooms full and all the bodies they brought in just while I was there. That visit is something that will stay in my mind for a long time. . . .”--Eric Richardson

“The bodies were lined against the walls of the hallways. I almost got sick. I had never seen so many dead people right before my eyes. . . .”

”. . . This experience immediately let me in on how abruptly a person that is driving under the influence of alcohol can destroy lives. . . . It was definitely an eye-opener. My life is now headed in the right direction.”--Sonny Griffin

“I guess what I stress most is the reality of the program. It’s like just watching alcohol hurt and destroy people. I truly regret drinking and even considering driving that New Year’s night. I consider myself lucky. Driving is no laughing matter. . . .”--Kevin Williams