Callie McCraw was a very close friend of some of my closest friends, Chad Applebaum, Scott Smith, and others. She was active in the Vicksburg Theatre Guild, which is how they all knew her. I didn't know her very well, but I did know her, sometimes we would all hang out together. From what I did know of her she was a very sweet, genuinely nice person. She was active in the JROTC at her school, and she was a christian.
Callie was driving to school one morning when a drunk driver, a woman who had just left the casinos after a night of drinking and gambling, lost control of her car and came across the highway median, hitting Callie head-on. She lingered in a coma for several devistatingly painful days before finally going to be with the Lord.
This was my closest (at that time) look at what death and drunk driving can do to a person, a family, and a community. While I have never been one to condone any excess of drugs or alcohol, I never before realized just how real the threat of drunk driving is. In my opinion, if you've had more than 2 or 3 drinks, no matter how well you think you hold your liquor, you should not drive. I personally witnessed the pain and anguish Callie's friends experienced over her death, and although I don't believe it can happen, in my heart I hope for a time when there will be no more senseless deaths.
The thing that strikes me the most, now, years after her death, is still the fact that Callie did nothing wrong. She wasn't drinking, she wasn't in a car with kids who were. She was just on her way to school, something most high schoolers would love to skip anyway. After her death I thought a lot about what would have happened if Callie had just decided to take the day off that day, but that kind of thinking can't lead anywhere. There are so many people in the world who you would think don't deserve to live. Rapists, child molestors, racists, homophobes, conservatives & lawyers ;) Callie McCraw didn't deserve to die.
I urge you, no matter how stupid it might feel, to not drive when you've been drinking, and to encourage your friends not to as well.
Do it for Callie, and do it for yourself.
an essay chad wrote about callie.
a site made by callie's parents.
This candle burns in memory of everyone who has been killed by a drunk driver.
Statistics:
In 1997 one person was killed by a drunk driver every 32 minutes.
One person was injured in an alcohol related incident every THIRTY SECONDS.
3 out of every 5 people will be involved in an alcohol related crash sometime in their lives.
Every weekday night from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., one in 13 drivers is drunk. On weekend nights between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. that number rises to one in 7.
For the same ammount of people to die in plane crashes as do as a result of drunk drivers, 2 planes would have to crash PER WEEK.
Drunk driving is the #1 violent crime in America
Statistics from MADD
