On the road, under the influence

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.

Having three drinks within one hour puts a 170-pound male at an approximate 0.04 blood alcohol content (BAC) level. His vision is now impaired, his attention divided and his coordination significantly reduced, according to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) website. By the time he takes the wheel nearly every weekend, Chris, a senior, has had nine drinks.

Chris' regular drinking habits put him well over the legal limit of 0.08 BAC for driving, not to mention four years below the legal drinking age and in violation of Maryland's zero-tolerance law for underage drinking and driving. According to an informal Silver Chips survey of 100 people conducted on May 11 and 12, 47 percent of Blazers have either driven under the influence of alcohol or been a passenger in a car with a drunk driver. This dangerous habit puts them at risk of death or serious injury, a risk that only increases during prom season, says Susan Katz of Outside the Classroom, a national youth alcohol- education organization.

"It's not because they like the taste"

Pressures to meet the Maryland provisional license curfew of 12:00 a.m., parents' curfews and friends in need of rides home are all reasons why Blazers have chosen to take the wheel inebriated, regardless of the possible dangerous consequences.

According to Katz, underage drinking emerges mainly in group settings. Teens use alcohol to be "more attractive and relaxed in social situations," she says. "It's not because they like the taste." Kids tend to shrug off the dangers of drunk driving, developing a certain "invincibility" complex toward the risk of death or serious injury in an alcohol-related crash, she says.

Blazers claim the lack of other options can often be a strong factor in a teenager's decision to drink and drive. Jennifer, a senior, describes one rainy night at the end of April when she was riding in a friend's car on the Beltway while both were under the influence of alcohol and marijuana. The driver was not only drunk but also speeding, talking on a cell phone and writing directions on the windshield of the car. Jennifer says she couldn't get out of the car because she was staying with her friend for the night.

Earlier this month, Ashley, a senior, drove a car full of friends home from a club in Washington, D.C., after a night of heavy drinking. With no sober person in the group, Ashley says she was chosen to drive because she had drunk the least and had driven drunk before, despite the fact that she only had her learner's permit.

Chris, too, has felt a similar obligation to drive drunk. "If you're drinking at somebody's house, and you get kicked out, you have to go somewhere," he says. "What else are you supposed to do?"

But Katz maintains that teens do have a choice about driving under the influence. She encourages teens to walk and stresses the idea of calling home if no sober ride is available. "Any parent or adult would want you to call them if you were worried about getting in a car," she says.

Too drunk to drive

Despite the documented negative effects of even small amounts of alcohol on driving ability—50 percent of 16- to 20-year-olds killed in alcohol-related automobile crashes had BAC level of less than 0.001, according to the National Council Against Drunk Driving—Blair teens claim a certain amount of responsibility in their drunk driving practices. Jennifer says her friends would never let each other drive "really drunk. We always ask people, ‘Are you OK to drive?' before they leave. You can tell if you're too drunk to drive," she says.

But under Maryland's zero-tolerance law, drivers under the age of 21 with as little as 0.02 BAC can be arrested, be fined $500 and have their license revoked or suspended, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). For Maryland teens, just one drink an hour before driving is "too drunk to drive."

Even a small amount of alcohol can mean the difference between life and death on the road, regardless of the amount of caution that the driver takes. After two drinks in one hour, an average-sized female with a BAC level of 0.05 is 11.1 times more likely than a sober woman to suffer a fatal injury in a vehicle crash, according to MADD.

Because of teen drivers' relative driving inexperience, the detrimental effects of alcohol on driving ability can be amplified in teens, says Blair health teacher Nan Martino. The compounded impact of impaired judgment from alcohol and a small "knowledge base" about driving can add up to serious problems, she says. "The more times you get lucky, the fewer times you'll be safe."

"A risk I wouldn't take"

For junior Margarita Acosta, getting caught driving drunk has never been and will never be a possibility. Two years ago, Acosta's cousin, now a high-school senior in Ohio, was in a car that was hit by a drunk driver. The impact killed the driver and hospitalized Acosta's cousin and the two other passengers in the car. Acosta's cousin remained in the hospital for several months because of severe internal bleeding and punctured organs.

"He looked so weak for such a long time," Acosta says. "I would never want that to happen to me or anyone close to me." Her cousin's near-death experience is Acosta's reason for refusing to ever drive drunk or travel in a car with a drunk driver.

But many Blazers aren't willing to give up their dangerous habits, even when they are aware of the consequences. "I guess we're just waiting for a wake-up call," says Chris. With one person injured approximately every minute in an alcohol-related car crash, according to the NHTSA, opportunities for wake-up calls are countless.