My thoughts have lingered on the problem of drunken-driving accidents for several years now — and it has happened again.

Our community is stricken by what grazes my mind as our most senseless recurring tragedy. As youngsters, we are often carefree and enjoy having a good time but use hasty judgment when it comes to our safety. It’s as if we are dumbfounded and seem to think that the people closest to us are somehow immune to the perils that inevitably follow bad decisions such as drinking and driving.

I spent this past summer in London and realized how perversely our culture seems to perceive alcohol and its role in our society. The British integrate consumption into their daily routines; they often enjoy a couple of pints of beer over lunch and then return to work, probably more relaxed and refreshed for the afternoon hours.

This sprawling U.S. rat race in which we “live” (if you can call our schedules “living”) demands so much of us that we feel as if we must unwind by drinking ourselves silly when the occasion arises. Our culture socializes us to be binge drinkers. That’s bad news for young adults. No matter how hard we try, the consumption of alcohol in extreme quantities will never cease.

Drunken driving and its consequences will continue to plague us unless we become clearer in our choices, before and after partying. The solution is simple: Designate a driver before you leave a party where you’ve been drinking.

This driver knows his or her responsibility is to stay sober and transport the party-goers homesafely. The designated driver is sober upon arrival, sober at the occasion, and sober for the drive home. We run into problems when we don’t designate someone as “transportation technician.” Then, the driving task simply falls to whoever happens to have had the least to drink.

But as we know, it takes only one slow reaction behind the wheel, or an overcompensation, and life is prematurely ripped away.

The next few days and weeks will certainly present the opportunity to ponder why we are not more cautious with our selves and our friends, and more people will probably think twice before they get behind the wheel after drinking. However, even this horrible accident will eventually fade from memory, and we will slip into our old habits of taking risks to get ourselves home.

My only hope is that one of these days, we will finally learn that we will never be invincible, no matter how young and full of promise we may seem.

May we all consider ourselves blessed to be alive and hopeful that there won’t be any more relatives or friends that ever have to experience the anguish that now enthralls several of our community’s families..

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