3/19/08---Kellie Poe-Bowdren---LICENSED DRIVER!!!!!!!!

You know how when your younger and you're out doing all those things that years later you will be embarrassed to admit?  Ya know, those things that these days make you shake your head either with pride or because of how stupid you were?

Yep, well, those are the things that when you get teenagers, you will hear that little inner-voice mentioning things like "the sins of your past have come back to roost" and things like that.

I'm the parent of a teenager driver.   (Does that sound like the opening to an AA meeting?)  Yes indeed, our very own Kellie got the license after taking her test--online.
With only a modicum of help from Mom & Dad.  She was going to pick up her license at the old DMV last Friday, so the day before I took her and her current boyfriend, the dreaded Cory, down to the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office.  Once about every 3 months, County Judge Joel Lazarus hosts what is called the Young Offender Program.  Its designed specifically for those driver's under 25, most of whom have been busted for a DUI...and is basically the M.E.'s version of Scared Straight.  I figured taking my daughter and her young boyfriend, who will be getting his permanent D/L in the next month or two to get a look at some grim reality couldn't hurt.
Kim joined us as the session began with a talk and slide show from an emergency room nurse, who described in graphic detail the agony that driver's injured in car accidents go through in the ER, including showing some rather graphic photos of accident victims.
She was followed by one of the doctors at the medical examiner's office, who grabbed the attention of the crowd right off the bat:

"I'm a rarity for a doctor.  None of my patients will ever talk to me, and I will never talk to them.  If you ever have me for a doctor.....it will mean that you are dead."

I could say Kellie's head sort of jerk up--her attention was gotten.  The doctor then showed the really, really graphic photos.  Headless corpses, victims with horrific cases of mutalization or amputation.  And he did it with this direct, matter of fact approach.
And all the victims had two things in common:  Impairment....and no seat belts.

I found myself glancing over to Kellie to see what sort of impact was being made.
She and Cory had the eyes wide open in horror look on their faces.

The doctor was followed by a deputy on the county's DUI task force, who spoke of what it was like having to go to a young driver's home and inform parents that their children would not be coming home.  I looked at the young girl in front of me, who was attending with her mother...and who at moment was text messaging a friend with her cellphone.

Finally there was another deputy, who spoke not as a deputy, but as a victim--amazingly--of three seperate DUI driver's.   She spoke of once being trapped in a car with her sister and actually watching the impaired driver standing by his car laughing.

After the course was over we thanked the judge for the presentation and then my wife made a somewhat startling announcement.  The ER nurse...the first speaker?  She had been on duty some 12 years ago when my wife was brought into the emergency room--the night her first husband, my kid's father, had died in a car accident.  She remembered her voice.

Small world indeed.

So after the presentation we went out with Kellie & Cory and had some dinner.  I asked them as we were waiting for dinner what they had thought, telling them that if they thought it was a waste of time that they could tell me.

"I didn't want to go at first," Kellie said, "but I'm glad you took me.  I don't think I ever want to have a drink as long as I live."
"The doctor was the best speaker," Cory told me, "he was, I dunno, so blunt about it.
Sort of woke you up."

Yep.  My own days of choosing to ignore the seat belt are done.  They sold me.

Later,
Jeff

Tomorrow.....Kellie Poe-Bowdren:  Driving Lesson #1--and why are the police coming towards our car??