Who?
Jessica Holland (ECU Student)
When?
September 27, 2012.
Where?
Jarvis Residence Hall
How?
In person interview
Why?
To learn about how she was personally affected by drunk driving.
Jessica Holland is currently a freshmen here at East Carolina University. In my interview with her she explained to me her personal story about drunk driving and how it has changed her outlook on the issue. The personal story Jessica revealed to me involved four of her close friends. They were all out drinking one night at a party. When it started getting late all the girls decided that they really needed to get back home. The only problem was that they were all completely drunk. One of the friends, with cloudy judgement due to her intoxication, decided that she would drive the rest of them home. Not long after the girls began riding down the road, they became involved in a fatal accident. The alcohol coursing through the young female driver’s veins caused her not only to speed but also to have an extremely hard time controlling the vehicle. The automobile soon swerved off of the road and the vehicle tragically struck a tree at high impact. The aftermath of the crash resulted in two of the four friend’s deaths and the hospitalization of the other two, one of them the driver. This tragic set of events left the driver in the hospital and she is currently recovering. Jessica pointed out that when the driver recovers she will have to carry the heavy burden for the rest of her life of killing two of her best friends and severely injuring another. Near the end of the interview I asked Jessica if her aspect on the issue had changed any. She responded by saying, “Before I was affected, I looked down on drunk driving but now that I have been personally involved with an incident and have seen the pain it has caused my community, it has completely changed my mindset on the issue. While I used to look down on drunk drivers as simply being dumb and not thinking about others, I now know how tough it is. I know my friend would have never personally hurt anyone.” It was clear in her tone as she spoke that Jessica was still uneasy about the situation.
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