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Beware the holiday cocktail of crowds, stress on roads

Drivers should remember the costs of drunken driving in terms of money, or worse.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published December 23, 2005

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Christmas Eve 1999 turned out to be the longest night of Rachel Leffel's life.

Leaving a family get-together with a few drinks inside her, the 23-year-old crashed her car in the woods.

She awoke from a coma three months later and is still in a wheelchair.

Since then Christmas has been "bittersweet," says her mother, Tily Noya, adding, "I would give anything if I would've taken the keys away from her."

Leffel's story, while extreme, is not uncommon around the holidays. More drivers are on the road than at any other time of the year. Many have been drinking, are drowsy, are teenagers, are under stress or a combination of these factors.

"Driving is just more dangerous," says Cpl. Donald Morris, who oversees traffic enforcement in northwest Hillsborough County for the Sheriff's Office.

It's bad along Gunn Highway, North Dale Mabry Highway, just about any major thoroughfare.

It's especially bad along Waters Avenue, where officials recorded dozens of crashes in November and at least 10 of 50 drunken driving arrests.

Why Waters?

Take a Target store. Add a Wal-Mart, a Lowe's, loads of fast-food restaurants and thousands of frazzled east-west commuters.

"There are tons of accidents whether it's the holidays or not," said shopper Jenise Gargagliano, who was at Wal-Mart with her son and mother-in-law on a recent Thursday morning. "But this time of the year it gets crazier."

Deputies say they will have a heightened presence on the roads this holiday season, but especially during the weeks of Christmas and New Year's.

Don't get caught driving drunk, they warn. Between court costs and attorney's fees, Morris says, the first offense amounts to "an $8,000 drink."

For Leffel, the consequences are far worse. Her Christmas Eve crash left her with brain damage, a crushed pelvis, several broken ribs and a leg fractured in 15 places. She lives in Temple Terrace, dependent on her parents.

"People don't believe it's going to happen to them," said Linda Unfried, president and co-founder of Hillsborough County Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "But it can happen to you."

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 09:27:09]