LIMA — The number of people killed by drunken drivers is significantly higher than the number of homicides by gun violence.
Yet the attention paid to deaths at the hands of drunken driving is very little compared to that of gun violence and in many ways, drunken driving crashes are more preventable.
To highlight the drunken driving problem while urging people to not get behind the wheel if they have been drinking, police leaders, emergency medical responders, hospital staff and other community leaders gathered in a show of support Friday. They gathered at Robb Avenue Park, where a drunken driving checkpoint was held on Robb Avenue later that day to catch impaired drivers.
The group also wanted to highlight the dangers of impaired driving as the Labor Day holiday approaches, when about 200 people lose their lives at the hands of drunken drivers during the three-day period each year.
Evelyn Smith of the Lima-Allen County Safe Community Coalition knows drunken driving is not the political hot potato that some have made gun violence into but she has made it one of her missions to bring attention to impaired driving, the deaths by impaired driving and the families destroyed at the hands of impaired drivers.
More than 10,000 people die annually at the hands of impaired drivers, Smith said.
“It didn’t have to be that,” Smith said. “People are too used to this. They have grown accustomed to this. They see it as, and I hate to say it, similar to the cost of doing business. If you’re going to be on the public roads, people are going to die.”
Standing next to Smith were the parents of 27-year-old Aaron Ehrnsberger, who was killed by an impaired driver last year while riding his motorcycle.
“This is not a faceless problem. The victims of drunk driving have a face. It is the face of Aaron Ehrnsberger,” Smith said.
Ehrnsberger’s mother, Candace Ehrnsberger, said she never got to tell her son how much she loved him after he was taken to the hospital.
“When they told us he couldn’t survive the surgery, we were devastated. We have to plan a funeral. We had to notify family and friends,” she said. “It was as hard as can be to handle.”
Ehrnsberger’s father, Donald Ehrnsberger, said he will never forget the call to inform him his son was hit by a car.
“It was devastating. There is always going to be a hole in our heart,” he said. “Our family is hurt, and there’s still a lot of healing left.”
Mothers Against Drunken Driving has worked to change impaired driving laws, curb drunken driving and support victims. Pam Styer, the local head of MADD, said her daughter was seriously injured when she was hit by a drunken driver 21 years ago.
“My daughter didn’t die, but I will never forget going to the hospital and seeing her covered in blood,” Styer said. “Please, please think before you drink. Know how you’re getting home.”
Smith said the number of fatalities does not include the thousands of other people who are left with permanent injuries and large medical bills due to a drunken driver.
St. Rita’s Medical Center representative Justin Laudick said hospitals deal with the victims when they come into the hospital. He said St. Rita’s and Lima Memorial Health System representatives can only urge people now to not drink and drive.
“The hurting doesn’t stop in the emergency department. It goes all the way through the hospital up into the rehab,” Laudick said. “Sometimes patients end up in nursing homes for long, extended stays.”
Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Tim Grigsby said the checkpoint that evening was not only an enforcement tool but an education tool.
“It is a huge problem. It’s not a faceless problem. It’s not something you just read about in the paper and it goes away. It is an issue that impacts our community down to the core as you can see by this family here,” Grigsby said. “We are not going to stand by idle and wait for the repercussions. We are going to go after it proactively.”
While the number of people murdered by gun violence has been on a steady decline, the same cannot be said for impaired driving fatalities. Smith wishes more people would listen to her message to not drive while impaired but often it takes a fatal or injury crash, or a drunken driving arrest that cost a person his or her freedom and thousands of dollars to get the message, she said.
“An impaired driving crash is totally unnecessary. Somebody chose to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” Smith said. “That was a choice.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
