LIHU‘E — Is it the parents, the system, the police, the schools, the teens themselves, those adults who get alcohol into the teens’ hands, or a combination, to blame where underage drinking is concerned? While that debate could rage for years
LIHU‘E — Is it the parents, the system, the police, the schools, the teens themselves, those adults who get alcohol into the teens’ hands, or a combination, to blame where underage drinking is concerned?
While that debate could rage for years to come, the reality is that Kauaians under the legal drinking age of 21 continue to get their hands on and consume alcohol, sometimes with devastating results.
Just last week, four teens were injured in a one-vehicle accident on Leho Drive near the Aloha Beach Resort Kaua‘i in Wailua, and one girl remains hospitalized after being flown to Honolulu after the vehicle’s entire passenger side was wiped out by a coconut tree when the driver lost control of the vehicle.
All four occupants are 15 years old, all from Kapa‘a. The unlicensed driver was cited for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant, but not for driving without a driver’s license. According to a county press release, alcohol is suspected to have been a contributing cause of the accident.
In other words, at least the driver was drinking, and the other occupants may have been, too. It is a graphic example of how things can go very bad as a result of underage drinking.
Personnel in the Kaua‘i Police Department have obligations to uphold state law prohibiting underage drinking and the county anti-drug office has ongoing efforts to educate the public about the dangers of underage drinking.
The agencies had two public seminars and a series of presentations in the schools this week about underage drinking, the dangers of drug use among young people and Internet safety.
Included during the evening meetings at Waimea Canyon Middle School cafeteria and the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall were parent surveys about attitudes on youth drinking and accessibility to alcohol.
Gary Shimabukuro of Laulima Hawai‘i, who said he has been “teaching drugs” for 30 years in Hawai‘i, spoke about the dangers of alcohol.
“Your kids, they no need drink and get drunk to lose judgment,” said Shimabukuro, adding that even with a blood alcohol content of .04 (.08 is considered legally drunk behind the wheel in Hawai‘i), memory, judgment and inhibitions are impaired.
That can lead to dangerous behaviors such as drug use, unprotected sex and getting into vehicles driven by impaired people, he said.
It impacts the victims and those who respond to crashes such as the fatal accident on the Westside earlier this year and the wreck in Wailua last week, said Shimabukuro.
As a result of accidents like these, lawmakers over the years have responded by instituting a graduated driver’s license system for young drivers and raising the legal drinking age to 21 in Hawai‘i, he said.
Still, the dangerous behavior continues and, he said, the idea persists among teens that, even after losing a close friend or several close friends in deadly accidents, nothing will change.
Specifically, he talked about a roadside memorial to the late Max Agor, the Waimea High School senior who died along Kaumuali‘i Highway earlier this year near St. Theresa’s Church in Kekaha where his funeral was held.
He said there were unopened beer bottles at the memorial site, which infuriated him and other adults, since Agor had been drinking before the accident, wasn’t wearing his seat belt and, according to county officials, had a BAC higher than .08.
“What kind of respect of the dead is that? That’s not the right message,” he said of the beer bottles left at the memorial.
He warned of the dangers of mixing energy drinks and alcohol, telling around 30 people at the Convention Hall and dozens more in Waimea that the caffeine in the energy drinks opens up blood vessels in the body that allows more alcohol more quickly into the bloodstream, leading to a quick, dangerous drunkenness.
A university study found those mixing energy drinks with alcohol are twice as likely as other drinkers to be victims of sexual assaults, to commit sex assaults, to ride with drunken drivers and to exhibit other dangerous behaviors, he continued.
Shimabukuro, whose grandmother was hit and killed by a drunken driver as she was walking home with beer for some of her relatives, talked about another woman burned over 60 percent of her body as a result of a collision with a drunken driver.
With burns over that much of one’s body, doctors put the victim into a drug-induced coma because the brain cannot possibly process the kind of pain the body is in, he said.
KPD officer Darla Higa, who gave the eulogy at Agor’s funeral, made a presentation at the Waimea gathering.
Earlier, she said in a telephone interview, “I think my message is, who buys it for the kids” and who lets them drive drunk? “It shouldn’t happen.”
“It’s examples that will stop anything in life,” she added. “Let’s all lead by example. If we make a mistake, move on.
“It’s a weapon,” she said of a motor vehicle, whether or not the driver is intoxicated. “It’s a total weapon once you get inside, (driving under the influence of alcohol) or not. Speed is just as dangerous.”
