1984

IT HAPPENS every day of evey year: hundreds of thousands of Americans drink alcoholic beverages and then slip behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. An estimated 23.500 people are killed annually in alcohol related accidents, and 700,000 more are injured.
But statistics don't tell the whole story. The grief suffered by individual families cannot be measured, nor can the guilt and torment of people who drink and drive, and then kill or maim. for the rest of their lives, They will be haunted by the horror of that brief, shattering moment when things went wrong.
What follows is a review of one such day: January 21, 1984, a date picked at random. It was a Saturday, and subfreezing in all States except Hawaii. The war in El Salvador had entered a "critical phase." Four electical contractors were acquitted of charges that they rigged bids in Washington and Indiana. The 78th National Western Stock Show and rodeo was attracting big crowds in Denver. And on the Nation's highways, 128 people died. 55 of them in accidents involving alcohol. (in most States, a driver is officially listed as "under the influence" if his or her blood-alcohol-content is .10 percent or higher.)
Here, then, is the grim diary of alcohol-related deaths on that horrible, perfectly ordinary, January 21.

12:10 a.m. Colbert County, Ala.
Nineteen-Year-Old Brian Posey, blood alcohol content (b.a.c.) .14, is speeding south on U.S. 43 in a Chevy Camaro, He tries to pass Harold Mann, 19, Who, according to the Police report, was also speeding and under the influence of alcohol. Posey sideswipes Mann's Ford. carrens off the road and overturns. Posey and two passenger, Benny Michael Burleson, 20, and Barry Hill, 19, are killed, and a third passenger is injured.

12:40 a.m. near Kernville, Calif
Linda Kissack, 27, is killed when her car caroms off a tree and smashes into boulders. Her b.a.c. .18. Twenty minutes later. near Santa Barbara, a car driven by Cynthia Espinoza, 19, b.a.c. .13, jumps a curb and flattens a 60-foot chain-link-fence. Espinoza, a mother of two, is killed.

1:15 a.m. Poultney, Vt.
Bruce Reynolds, 25, has been drinking at two bars. At around 12:30 a.m. A woman see him leave the Ragtime Bar. He appears "Loaded". but she makes no attempt to stop him or report his condition to authorities.
Reynolds's car rounds a bend, jumps an embankment and smashes into a tree, Reynolds, who is not wearing his seat belt, is ejected and killed. His b.a.c. a sky-high .30.

1:15 a.m. Riverside County, Calif.
Candi Lynn Easter, 20, is driving about 65 m.p.h. along an I-15 straightaway. Suddenly her car crosses two lans, vaults an embankment and rolls over several times. Passenger Jacquline Hachee, also 20. is thrown beneath the car. she dies three days later. Easter walks away from the accident. Her b.a.c. is .11. Although convicted of driving while under the influence, Easter is fined only $680 and put on three years probation.

1:30 a.m. Yuba City-Sutter area, Calif.
Fifty-year-old Navis Lowery, intoxicated, is killed when her car overturns on Route 20. At the sametime in Mt. Jackson, Va. Victor Barb, 44. b.a.c. .24. loses control of his pickup which strikes a tree head-on, Killing him, He leaves a Wife, four Children and two Grandchildren.

1:40 a.m. Nanakuli, Hawaii.
Navy Man Thomas Fitzgerald, 20, is speeding when he hits and kills pedestrain Omaha Lutu, 30, b.a.c. .20. Fitzgerald b.a.c. .16. is convicted of negligent Homicide in the first degree and sentenced to five years probation.

1:40 a.m. Hampton, Va.
Glenn Sprouse, 37. has spent Friday night in Mitch's Pub shooting Pool. Now, with a b.a.c. of .18. he is rushing to another Bar with two friends in his pickup. At 80 m.p.h., Sprouse veers off the road and slams into a tree. The Pickup's roof is torn open. Passenger Troy Bass, 23, soars through the opening and lands in some bushes. He survives. Driver Sprouse and passenger Ronald Kanaday, 22, are killed.
More than a year after the accident, Bass has trouble putting weight on his left leg. On Doctor's orders, He has quit his job in a garden nursery. Nerve damage in his back prevents him from lifting heavy objects. "I'm just glad I'm alive" he says "I haven't had a drink since the accident, I don't drive, and I don't know if I'll drive agine. No matter who I'm with. I'm still scared of the road."
According to his Father, Kanaday was "a quiet kind of boy who loved to fish and shoot pool. He was my baby, I never saw him drink." He considered the long months since the tragedy and said, "Life hasn't been the same."

1:45 a.m. Goldsboro, N.C.
Jeffery Mark Lee, 22, is killed when he misses a curve, strikes a ditch bank and rolls his car over several times. Police estimate his speed at 85 m.p.h. and believe he had been drag racing.His b.a.c. .14. Lee's Father was killed when Lee was just 18-months old in a car accident involving alcohol.

Sometime after 2 a.m. outside Red Bluff, Calif.
David Walker, 19, who has been drinking, is killed after his car plummets into a ravine.

2:29 a.m. Fresno, Calif.
Linda Bogenreif, 23. is driving under the influence, b.a.c. .22. At an intersection, she collides with a car driven by Kelly Moen, 19, who has also been drinking. Bogenreif suffers head injuries, Moen is killed. Bogenreif is fined $673 and sentenced to three years probation. Moen's family, stunned by the loss of their "sunshine filled" daughter, moves to a new location.

2:30 a.m. Rush Township, Ohio.
Richard Cade, 19, has been drinking. He is alone in a '74 Olds and driving at an unsafe speed. He drives off the road, strikes a mail box, fence and culvert, continues across a yard and over a drive way, and finally hits a large tree. the car overturns and catches fire. Cade is burned beyond recognition.
A freind had cautioned Cade not to drink and drive, and had offered to put him up for the night. but Cade said he had to get home.

2:35 a.m. Burton, Mich.
Frank Adams, 24, b.a.c. .21. Dies when his car slams into a Tractor-Trailer.

2:45 a.m. near Hamlet, N.C.
Royce Britt, 24. who has been drinking. Is speeding and misses a curve. He is injured when his car rolls over. His passenger, Linda Norton, 23, dies two days later. Britt is sentenced to three years probation. with 30 days and four week ends in jail.

3:10 a.m. Westminster, Texas.
Juan Hernandez, 29, Loses control of his car, he swerves onto the road's shoulder, tries to regain the road, veers into the opposite lane, piles into a truck, One passenger Juan Balderas, 19, is ejected from the right front seat onto the shoulder, and is killed. Whitnesses tell Police that Hernandez has been drinking. Hernandez flees the scene. He is still wanted by Police for failure to stop and render aid.

3:44 a.m. Springdale, Ark.
A car driven by Samual Pianalto, 23, and intoxicated, collides with a pickup driven by Richard Edens, 35, also intoxicated. Edens is killed. Pianalto's car contains 13 Beer cans and one in a thermal holder. An open can is also found in Edens's car.

3:52 a.m. Richland Township, Ohio.
Larry Forsythe, 40, intoxicated, dies when his car crosses the center line of U.S. 22 and smashes it to a Truck driven by Charles Trago, 22. The Truck jackknifes down a culvert, snapping off a power pole and striking a house. It takes the fire department, the Life Squad, and the Highway Patrol an hour to extricate Trago's passenger, Keith Koch, who is hospitalized with seven broken ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung, a ruptured spleen and bruised kidneys and liver. A Skull fracture destroys the Hearing in his right Ear.
Trago suffers a collapsed lung, a broken jaw, Ligament damage in his back and neck and cuts on his leg. "I still wonder about the cars that come at me," he says later. "I used to feel safe driving carefully, staying in my lane. Not anymore."

4:30 a.m. near Northport, Ala.
Theron Taylor, 56, and his passenger Virginia Roden, 55, are driving to Taylor's favorite deer hunting site. A pickup truck driven by Lewis West, 27, approaches from the opposite direction. When the two vehicles are about 50 feet apart, West, who is driving under the influence, swerves across the yellow line. The collision buckles Taylor's windshield post which smashes into Roden's head. She dies three hours later. Says Taylor. "I can't tell you how this has changed my life. I'm afraid to drive for fear there's another drunk behind the wheel of the other car."
West pleads guilty to manslaughter and is fined $250. He is placed on 5 years probation.

5:10 a.m. Hemet, Calif.
David Hanaway, 27, races his car down the street, smashes into a curb, tears through a chain-link-fence, strikes a concrete walk way and dies. his b.a.c. .30.

6:45 a.m. near Newton, N.C.
Karen Hall, 24, intoxicated, loses of her car, hits an embankmet, overturns and is flung to her death.

For the next five hours and fifty minutes. No highway deaths attributable to alcohol are recorded. The drinking drivers who have survived the night must be sleeping it off. Resting up for a fresh onslaught.

12:35 p.m. near Hatch, N.M.
Expectacion Nava, 67, is carrying eight farm laborers in in his pickup truck. Jesus Rey, 27, b.a.c. .15, drives his pickup across the center line and hits Nava's truck head-on. Nava is killed. Ten people in the two vehicles are hospitalized.

1:40 p.m. Seal Beach, Calif.
Ha Quoc Vu, 25, and Hein Huu Nguyen, 22, are repairing Vu's car on the shoulder of I-405, Jerry York, 23, b.a.c. .21, is racing another car at about 75 m.p.h. When York tries to pass on the shoulder, He strikes and kills Vu, and injures Nguyen.

2:30 p.m. outside Clarksville, Texas.
Melvin Hensley, 45, drives off the road, into a ditch, and through a fence. He strikes a tree and is killed. His b.a.c. is .11.

3:15 p.m. South Sacramento, Calif.
Francisco Blas, 29, Hits the center divider on U.S. 50, and is killed. His b.a.c. .22.

4:45 p.m. near Aynor, S.C.
With a b.a.c. of .17, Ronald Floyd, 23, is driving his pickup down a secondary road at a high rate of speed. He skids on a curve and swings broad side into a truck driven by Charles Fore, 36. Floyd is flung out of his vehicle and beheaded.

6:15 p.m. Plantersville, Texas.
Lester Ubinoski, 45, is Drunk, His b.a.c. a near fatal .44. His pickup weaves wildly into the wrong lane on Route 105. a car changes lanes to avert a collision. But stikes a trailer towed by the vehicle behined Ubinoski. Ubinoski flees and the driver behind him gives chase.
Ubinoski is killed when his pickup flips over and lands upside down. His body is hanging half way out the door when Lawrence Smith, 50, b.a.c. .23, hits the pickup throwing Ubinoski onto the road

6:30 p.m. near Albuquerque, N.M.
Cokie Garrett, 56, is driving his Tractor-trailer in the westbound lane of I-40 when an East bound car driven by Melvin Davis, 31, traveling on the wrong side of the interstate, hits him head-on. The front end of Davis's car is compressed all the way to the dashboard.
Davis. b.a.c. .24, is killed, as are three of his four passengers, (one of them with a beer can embedded in her intestines). Daniel Sanchez of the New Mexico State Police pulls out the only survivor, a woman with multiple injuries. "If people drove through neighborhoods shooting out car windows with shotguns, everyone would be demanding that something be done," says Sanchez. "But people are using alcohol as shotguns and we continue to tolerate it!"

7:05 p.m. near Sunflower, Ariz.
Paul Anderson's pickup veers off the road and flips upside down, passenger Tracy Davis, 21, is killed. Anderson, 29, is injured. the Police report shows he had been drinking.

7:10 p.m. outside West Union, Iowa.
With his ten-year-old sister beside him, Jefferson Woodson, 23, is on his way to visit his girlfriend. His car collides with a vehicle driven by Gary Keppler, 21, All three are killed. State police reveal that Woodson's and Keppler's b.a.c.'s are "over the minimum."

7:20 p.m. San Jose, Calif.
Elias Arellano, 51, slams his pickup into a parked car, While being booked on a drunk-driving charge, b.a.c. .20, he passes out, Taken to a hospital, he later dies of complications from internal injuries.

7:40 p.m. central Valley, Calif.
John Kepner, 21, is cold sober when his pickup kills pedestrain Lloyd Stevens, 50. Kepner didn't see Stevens, who was walking across a four-lane boulevard on a dark night. Stevens's b.a.c. .25.

8:25 p.m. outside Wickliffe, Ky.
Robert Brown, 54, b.a.c. .38, is dead. The Police report reads. "He traveled across the highway and down an embankment. He was ejected through the rear glass of his vehicle."

9:10 p.m. Denton Township, Mich.
Jack Mead, 26, b.a.c. .24. Attempts to walk across the west bound lanes of M-55. He is struck and killed.

9:40 p.m. outside Vian, Okla,
Bobby Bolin, 26, is shooting down U.S. 64 at 85 m.p.h. With Bolin are two brothers. Billy Sequichie, 25, and Tommy, 33, Bolin had been drinking. He miscalculates a curve and crosses into the opposite lane.
An oncoming car driven by Michael Lawson, 19, hits the Bolin car, breaking it in half. Bolin, and the Sequichie brothers are killed.
three innocent people in the oncoming car, Lawson, his wife Betty, 20, and one-year-old Robert are seriously injured. The Baby's skull is split open and his left side is paralyzed. The Lawsons had been driving home from a Clint Eastwood movie called SUDDEN IMPACT.

9:45 p.m. Carson City, Nev.
Recalls the driver, "I was traveling south on Highway 395 in the left lane about 35 m.p.h. When this person suddenly runs across the road in front of me. I had no time to react by breaking or swerving."
the dead victim is Frances Gordon, 58, b.a.c. .21. Her husband says she was on her way to deliver a sandwich to a friend at a bar.

10:40 p.m. outside Moultrie, Ga.
Sandra Knight, 16, unlicensed and the mother of a one-year-old boy, is driving south on Route 111 with three passengers. they are on their way to a dance. Mary Kidd, 49, b.a.c. .22, is driving north at 65 m.p.h. Suddenly she crosses the center line and smashes head-on into the Knight car.
Venessa Williams, 18, severely injured, is pulled out of the Knight car by passers-by just before the two vehicles burst into flames. Kidd, Knight, and one of the two other young women, Tangie White, 19, perish in the fire. Debra Williams, 17, dies four days later.

11:28 p.m. Johnstown, N.Y.
John Diamond, 27, b.a.c. .30, is killed when his car skids into a tree.

11:54 p.m. near Ottumwa, Iowa.
Brian McDaniel, 16, is driving his brother's Pontiac Firebird with passenger Jay Fite, 17, McDaniel, who has been issued his driver's license that very day, is driving fast. He passes four cars on the left in a no-passing zone and, swerving behind the fifth car, passes on the right shoulder. re-entering the lane, he loses control and skids sideways across the highway. Steven Lord, 30, has no time to avoid the collision. He almost cuts the Firebird in half.
McDaniel, Lord, and Lord's passenger, Stephen Throckmorton, 32, die at the scene. (Throckmorton, a machine operator, leaves a wife and four children.) Fite, Hospitalized with injuries, dies two days later. Both drivers had been drinking.

For January 21, 1984, the carnage is over. It's time to count the bodies, and weep. and reflect. But not for long. In six minutes, another day will begine. At 12:01 a.m. in Visalia, Calif. Karen Wonacott, 18, will be killed when a F o u r - W h e e l - D r i v e Wagon driven by James McNiece, 44, who has been drinking, runs a stop sign and collides with the VW Beetle in which she is a passenger.
Karen Wonacott will be the first of 48 people killed on January 22 in Auto accidents involving alcohol.

Contact Me At wildfire_1@charter.net