Four Lives Cut Short

By now, we've all heard the tragic news about the four teens who died as a result of being hit head on by a drunk driver. So many ironies exist in this story. Each teen was poised to begin a new and productive life. The 27 year old Scott Owens who killed them may or may not have been driving drunk. He refused a blood alcohol test, but he appeared disoriented at the scene. All the circumstantial evidence points toward him driving while drunk. If he was indeed drunk while driving, it wasn't his first time. Some people never learn.

According to the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), an estimated 12,998 people in 2007 died nationally in traffic crashes that involved a driver with a blood alcohol level that was over the legal limit. Nearly 13,000 people, isn't that a small town? A village, at the least? No matter how you look at it, that's a lot of lives. And in New Mexico, of the 411 traffic fatalities that occurred that same year, 169 involved alcohol. 15 of those deaths occurred with children 12 or under. No matter where you live in the state or in Albuquerque, chances are you know someone who has been affected by a drunk driver.

So while Scott Owens walked away from the crash with little injury, four young people died. Sometimes when I tell my son that life isn't fair, it is stories such as these that illustrate it best. Kate Klein, Alyssa Trouw, Julian Martinez and Rose Simmons, each of whom was just beginning a productive life, were killed by a presumed drunk driver who had a record of drunk driving. No, life isn't fair.

New Mexico has toughened up its drunk driving laws in the past few years. But when accidents such as these happen, you have to ask, is it enough? What will it take to turn these statistics around? Will we ever drink responsibly? What can we do to ensure that we do?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think? And is there anything we can do to make this kind of tragedy go away?