Bitter Lessons of Drinking and Driving

* The scourge of underage alcohol abuse has again laid waste to human life, and forever changed the future for at least four Orange County families (“4th Katella Student Dies After Desert Car Crash,” July 31). While wishing to convey only the most sincere condolences to all of the families involved, I must note there seems to be an alarming lack of willingness to place the blame for this tragedy.

This was not an act of God, nor a twist of fate. It was, simply put, a car full of teen-agers drinking and driving. But for the grace of God, this could have happened to many of us in our youth, or still happen to our own children today. To hear remarks such as “You know the kids are going to drink beer; that’s part of what they go for” and “They always had a rule that one of them would remain sober” is to hear voices running scared from their own culpability.

As parents, we must weigh and balance our desire to be our child’s friend with the awesome responsibility of guiding them through infancy, adolescence, their teen years and into adulthood. By and large, this was a group of fine young men--athletic, active in their church and getting good grades in school. That their end was met on a dirt road in the Mojave Desert early one Saturday morning is a sad legacy, and an ill-fitting tribute to the high esteem in which they obviously were held by their friends and families.

Just as sad, however, is the realization that these deaths will have very little impact on the drinking habits of thousands of Orange County’s teen-agers, beyond the shock felt by their immediate circle of friends. It’s very likely that after the funerals, some kids will feel the need to drown their sorrows in alcohol, proceed into their vehicles, “feeling infallible” (as those they mourn did), and drive home.

It’s no coincidence that the last threshold one must cross into adulthood is to reach 21 years old, the legal age to consume alcohol.

Again it has been proven that there is no way for minors to drink responsibly, and that the cost of underage drinking can be more than anyone should ever have to bear.

K. DAVIS

Anaheim

* As I read the papers now, with the shocking tragedy concerning the teen-agers in the desert car crash, I must say far too much emphasis is being placed on the role of the driver. He is not entirely to blame. He was the designated driver, but they probably were all well over the alcohol limit. None of them could have consumed 40 beers alone. Mathematically, each one had almost the equivalent of a six-pack of beer!

I think we have to be careful in our treatment of the young survivors. The students who died will always be remembered. This was a great tragedy.

JILL GRAVES THOMAS

Newport Beach

* The alphabet of a sick society starts with automobiles and beer. And because society is both sick and stupid, it is not surprising that four more teen-agers have been killed by what usually kills them.

As parents, we allow the hazardous rites of passage, the cars and the kegs. Because we all dance to the pervasive, deceptively cool tune of the beer and car ads, we’re afraid to be parental, to say no to the unnecessary. So when things go wrong, we haul out the usual apathetic whine: Boys will be boys.

But boys will be dead because we’re not doing our job, and the beer and car companies are doing theirs too well.

We can start being proper parents and more intelligent adults by stopping beer and alcohol advertising, and by discouraging the excessive reliance on the car.

M. POWER GIACOLETTI

Lake Forest