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INDEX/SECTION B TRENDS Wednesday, July 10,1985 Section B Accident results in painful legacy Herald staff writer The story is becoming all too familiar. A few drinks, a split-second mistake, cars collide, people are injured and/or die, charges are filed, and the case is neatly tucked away while waiting, sometimes (or months, to be heard in court. Quite often, that's the last heard of alcohol-related automobile accidents. But this story is about the lingering aftermath: * • • Karen (not her real name) is an attractive 23-year-old whose life was altered three summers ago. While die waited at home for her boyfriend to arrive for a date, he was involved in a car accident which left him per­ manently disabled. John (not his real name) and two friends were returning home from Wisconsin. John was the front seat passenger. His friend sitting behind the wheel, and the driver of the other car had both been drink­ ing. It was later determined John's friend had the alcohol equivalent of one beer In his blood. ., . All five men involved in the wrfcck on Route 12 were hospitalized. But John had received the worst of it. The 20- year-old, whose head rapped against the windshield, return­ ed home after a six-week hospital stay with the in­ telligence of a fifth-grader. Karen, who had thought she'd been stood up by her date, found out about the accident the following morning when she called his home and talked to his mother. Next came the painful ordeal of being unable to do anything but watch a loved one lie on a hospital bed in a coma. "The waiting was the hardest part. Would he be normal or a vegetable? Should we hope he lives or dies? Hie waiting, it seemed like it never ended. "You can't describe emo­ tions. You can only feel them. Watching his family sit and wait, brother and sisters, anger, tears, and all that. It's very Important people see that sideofit. "Hiey (John's family) will never know and they still don't know how much progress he can make. It's very unliktiy he'll ever be at normal in* teMgenee again/' Karen his friends who'd also been in­ jured in the accident went on to attend college. "It's pretty tough watching someone you care about and know so well change so drastically. "He was in his first year of college. I visited him at home and sat there next to him and he cried because he never would go to college and the guy who caused the accident would," Karen said Karen, not a drinker to begin with, had her first drink since the accident -- a glass of wine -- last Christmas. She'd been through those high school days when those who didn't drink were looked upon as "dif­ ferent." "It was OK, the 'in thing' to do.I was the type of person who'd dump her beer into a plant at a party. Somebody always made sure my glass was filled, but I'd always emp­ ty It Drinking, physically, didn't feel good to me. "People would drink to be cool It's supposed to make them more mature' to <hrlak. It's a John spent a week in a i After coming i newborn baby.l learn to learn to walk, talk and even feed himseiritfhlls tut stayed home wlttr his family, being able challenge, way with You're getting away something," Karen ttld. Mr a disagreement with s family, she and John went their separate ways. "It's hard to say goodbye to someone who isn't there but is still liv­ ing," Karen said. "The body is still there, but it's a shell with a new person." She didn't date until this year, and her current boyfriend is a non-drinker. You'd think that Karen wouldn't want to remember that July night in 1982, but forgetting it is the last thing on her mind. "For a long time after the ac­ cident, people thought it was too painful for me to talk about it. But I wanted to tell them about my experience and it was always amazing how quickly they'd stop drinking. Instantly. Just like that," she said snapp­ ing her fingers. "Alcoholism isn't a pre­ requisite for drunk driving. All you have to be is intoxicated. It can happen to teenagers, businessmen, people down the street, your parents. They could have one drink at dinner and miss a turn. "When people realize the scars it's left behind, they get a very rude awakening," she said. "Everybody thinks it won't happen to them, but it does." It happened to Karen and John, two young people whose lives were forever changed by one of the most dangerous com­ binations around -- drinking and driving. State police divisions known by new titles The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement is now known as the Department of State Police. The uniformed officers working for the department will be called the Division of State Troopers. The new titles werecreated by an executive order signed by Governor James R. Thompson last March 29. The governor ex­ plained at the time that the change was needed to remove con­ fusion concerning the depart­ ment's role and responsibilities. "Because the public and some law enforcement agencies did not understand the duties of the five 'divisions of the department," the governor said, "operations were sometimes delayed by misguided or improper requests for service." ' The new names, Thompson said, would establish a consistent and effective identity for the state's leading police agency, thus completing the reorganization process that he initiated for the department in 1976. In addition to the Division of State Troopers, one other branch of the agency has been renamed. Operations of the state's seven crime laboratories, the finger­ print identification program, and the Firearm Owner Identification program will be conducted by the Division of Forensic Services and Identification, which was previously known as the Division of Support Services. The Division of Administration, which conducts the state-wide missing child recovery program, I SEARCH, the Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Division of Internal Investigation, which ex­ amines wrong-doing in state government, retain their present names. Prize quilt is on display Tickets for the 1965 Easter Seal quilt are available at The Needleworks, 89 N. Williams St., Crystal Lake, where the quilt is on display through the month of July. The quilt will be given away Sept. 15 at the third Annual McHenry County Antiques Show. Materials for the quilt squares, valued at about $90, were donated by The Needleworks. The squares are comprised of hopscotch plaid and Yorktown prints, shop owners Kathy Buder and Peg Harris explained. In­ dividual flower patterns were counted cross stitched on the ready-made fabric with DMC floss. Steel-blue and cream squares were color coordinated with the embroidered squares, creating a quilt with a unique design and an antique flavor. War waged against drunk drivers By Steve Metsch Herald staff writer From a local ature, war is high school to the county police to the state beings J waged against drunk driving. 'at Fitzgerald has been busy since starting a chapter of Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD) at Crystal Lake South High School in early 1964, but he wouldn't mind being even busier. Fitzgerald and co-director Don Stumpf, South's wrestling coach, have made strides against the occurrence of high school students be* ing behind the wheel while intoxicated, but there's always room for improvement. "I think we've made headway," said Fitzgerald during a break from coaching a summer basketball program. "One of the things we've had a problem with is meeting times. The kids in the group are so active in extra-curricular activities, or else Don and I are coaching, and we have had a hard time getting together." The largest enrollment of South's SADD chapter has been approx­ imately 50 students. Fitzgerald had the notion of starting a group planted in his mind when he heard a speech by Robert Anastas, who founded SADD in 1981 after two of his former prep hockey players were killed thanks to mixing boOze and cars. Between 8,000 to 9,000 teenagers are killed per year In alcohol- related accidents. "I read the papers Just like everybody else. I see that people are killed every day in accidents. We wanted to get it started (at South)," Fitzgerald said. ' While he and Stumpf are the chapter's heads, the group really belongs to the students. "It's a peer-to-peer sitauation where they talk one to the other. The major thing is keeping kids from drinking and driving a car. That's our main objective. And it goes for anybody," Fitzgerald said. According to statistics from the McHenry County Sheriffs Depart­ ment, not enough local residents have taken that advice. Despite repeated warnings and tales about the dangers of drinking and driving, the two were combined on county roads more than 1,000 times last year. The Sheriff's Department made 255 Driving Under the Influence (DUI) arrests in 1964. The sheriffs police also made 1,133 arrests for open liquor in vehicles, a large rise from the 296 arrests the previous year. "Weil, the thing is the new law because it's not Just the driver's responsibility anymore. It's everybody in the car," Sergeant Pete Corson said of the increase. Responsibility for one's actions, and those of others, is a big part of SADD. The group has a unique 'Contract for Life,' which provides help for those who've had too much to drink. "It's an agreement between parents or responsible adults and the students. It says if a student is in a position where he doesn't fed he can get home safely -- the person they're with can't drive, or If they're babysitting and the people come home intoxicated, or if they themselves have been drinking -- they in turn sign this and the parent does the same. "The thing is they can call for help, a ride home, and help each other. No questions are asked at the time. They wait until the next morning," Fitzgerald said. Some parents, he said, claim the contract encourages kids to drink. "That's not true. It's if you do, don't drive a car," Fitzgerald said. Illinois' legal drinldng age is 21 years. Wisconsin recently raised its drinking age to 19, meaning under-age drinkers don't have far The lower drinking age up north, unfortunately, increases the chances of intoxicated drivers riding the highways of McHenry Coun­ ty- <, "We need probable cause to stop vehicles," said Corson when ask­ ed whether the new mandatory seat belt law will help catch drunk drivers."We need a radar violation, running a stop sign. A lot of peo­ ple think we'll sit at the corner and check who is wearing seat belts. They're wrong. "We need probable cause to make an official stop. If we see a newer model and the driver doesn't have the shoulder harness on, we can stop and inquire," Corson added. He did admit that the seat belt law may save several lives which could have been lost in alcohol-related accidents. "I've seen 25 years of law enforcement and in that period of time, I've never taken a dead body out of a seat belt yet. I've had accident victims who wore belts who've died later, but never at the scene of an accident," Corson said. State Sen. Jack Schaffer (R-32nd) hopes to see a marked drop in drunk driving offenses in Illinois as a result of legislation approved by the General Assembly calling for automatic suspension of drivers licenses in DUI cases. "This gets motorists where it hurts. It takes away their driving privilege, and I believe more people will come to realize that being allowed to drive truly is a privilege," Schaffer said. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate after winning in the House, 70-13. Gov. James Thompson has supported the measure from its Inception and is expected to sign it soon. The measure would mean an automatic three-month suspension of license for a person who fails a drunk-driving test. Anyone who refuses to take a chemical test would lose driving privileges for six months. No possibility for a restricted driving permit would be allow­ ed for at least 30 days of the suspension period. A suspension would begin 45 days after a driver's arrest for DUI, but the person charged could request a judicial hearing before the suspension. In the meantime, however, people are still driving drunk and en­ dangering their lives and the lives of others with no end in sight.