A Lesson Learned

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My sons both like their beer. Thankfully they don't drink it every day and that's a good thing. A friend of my younger son, I'll call him John, was home for Christmas. He likes to drink. My son went out to a bar with him 2 days before Christmas. Everyone got home safely that night. But that is certainly not the end of the story. The next night John called again asking my son to go out to the bars with him for the 2nd night in a row. My son declined which at the time we didn't know was a good decision. John ended up going out with his much older brother in law. They went to a bar about 4 miles from home. At approximately 12:30 am they were both drunk and decided it was time to go home. At this point it was now Christmas. Apparently John was less drunk than his brother in law, how they decided this is beyond me, so John drove his brother in laws truck home from the bar. About a quarter mile from my home and about 2 miles from John's home they had a pretty bad accident. John was driving and realized he was starting to go off the road, over corrected and ended up crashing into 2 trees. This is all what John told my son a couple of days later. The air bags went off but John still sustained a very bad cut on his forehead. He was bleeding pretty good. His brother in law who was not belted apparently was knocked unconscious and as was discovered a bit later had his pelvic bone broken. John tried to wake his brother in law up to no avail. He then tried to call the police several times but his call kept getting dropped. So John panicked and took off to find some help. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. The police arrived to find John gone and his brother in law in serious condition. John ran through some corn fields and the police were able to follow his path by the blood trail he left behind. John's brother in law was air lifted to a hospital in Chicago, we live about 50 miles south of Chicago, and John was taken to a local hospital for stitches to his head. Then he was arrested. He was charged with a DUI, reckless driving, driving in the wrong lane, and leaving the scene of an accident which is a felony. He spent the entire Christmas Day in jail and was released on bail Monday morning. He then had to go to court to ask permission to leave the state as he lives in Kentucky since graduating from college. John's brother in law is going to need surgery to fix his pelvic bone and will not be able to work for many many months. Needless to say my son is very upset by all of this. And if anything good can come out of this very bad situation it is a lesson learned. I'm sure by many of John's friends I hope but certainly by both my son's as we had a long talk about this. Both my son's admitted to me that they have driven while drinking when they certainly should not have. They both have assured me that they will never drive again while drinking nor will they get in a car where the driver has been drinking. They will call me, I don't care if it's 3 in the morning I will go get them, as will my husband. Or they will call a taxi or uber. I can only hope this lesson learned will stay with them for the rest of their lives. I can only hope and pray that it will.