Living consequences prevent drunk driving

By: Megan Lynch

Posted: 10/9/08

Last week there was a story in the news about Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) banning an accident victim from volunteering at their events because her disfigured appearance was too offensive. A 16-year-old drunk driver hit Rose Harn 20 years ago and now she is left brain damaged and paralyzed. Her husband, Michael Harn, has taken her to about a dozen MADD events in Idaho as a volunteer to show people the real-life consequences of drunk driving. However, because of people's appalled response, MADD officials dropped her as a volunteer. Now Harn's horrifying story will never be heard, and this should be viewed as a huge insult to her legacy.

MADD is a great organization and contributes so much to deterring drunk driving, which makes this issue so much more shocking. While the sight of Harn is indeed shocking, she can be used as a successful scare tactic to prevent drunk driving. At the last fair she attended, the sight of her almost caused a riot, which is why MADD officials asked her husband to take her home. People are obviously afraid of Harn, but they need to imagine how they would feel if they were the ones to cause it. Anyone who makes the decision to drive while intoxicated, needs to know the consequences. The boy who hit Harn was only sentenced to 90 days in jail, but he will know what he did to this woman for his whole life.

One of the questions MADD raised was whether displaying survivors was in the best interest of the family. Michael Harn believes his wife knows what is going on around her, but she can only respond by blinking her one working eye. He brings her to fairs and court ordered classes to show people how this accident basically ended his wife's life and totally changed their marriage and family life in an instant - one which could have easily been avoided. He wants to warn people about the dangers of drunk driving. In addition, he wants to use his wife as an educational tool to help prevent this terrible accident from happening to any other family.

This seems like a great way to educate young people in the harms of drunk driving. Nevertheless, with all the gruesome things on TV and video games, young people these days are desensitized to reality. This generation needs to see things up close and personal to make it real, regardless of the shock value of the image.

Misty Moyse of MADD National Communications said one of the most effective methods they use to combat drunk driving are typically more proactive. She said that sobriety checkpoints are very effective in preventing accidents before they happen. Another tactic is placing tracking devices in the vehicles of people previously convicted of drunk driving. With the tracking system, 64 percent of people do not repeat their offenses. Moyse also said that they do use a great deal of education, Harn was not the way to go because she was upsetting people.

Usually when people are upset by something, it's because of a certain thought or emotion the situation brings out of them. In this case, it should make people feel afraid to ever hurt someone that badly, or maybe guilt from previously driving when you have had one too many. These are the feelings alcohol prevention education needs to arouse in people, whether they have already been caught driving drunk, or if they are just getting their license for the first time.

Everyone knows that drunk driving is illegal. They hear it repeatedly. But how much more effective would drunk driving lectures be with real examples of people who have been paralyzed and brain damaged from an accident like Rose Harn? If drivers see those images over and over again, maybe that's what they will remember before they go out drinking without a designated driver or think that they're fine after five beers. More families of drunken accident victims need to stand up and make their stories heard, regardless of whether or not the public wants to hear it.