On Friday April 11, 2001 a mother and her two kids were driving on route 51 when a dark blue Cavalier rammed into the back of the car. This caused both cars to violently lose control. The mother and her two kids smacked into the side rail. The person in the blue Cavalier finally came to a stop. The mother is in critical condition and her youngest daughter is dead. Her oldest daughter is also in critical condition. The driver of the blue Caviler went to the hospital but was dead an hour later. He had an alcohol level of 2. He was only 19.
Underage drinking has become an epidemic across the country. This behavior is more common in colleges. College students between the ages of 18 to 21 make up 57% of the 1400 deaths due to alcohol that occur in college students 18-24 (Hingson et al., 2002). Even though this problem seems to be serious among college students it doesn't start here. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, first use of alcohol typically begins around the age of 13.
The college campus is filled with many people of different ages and the majority of them are over twenty-one. The average age at California University is 26. Therefore, the few students that are under twenty can have a lot of access to alcohol. Yes, some of these people over twenty-one will not buy alcohol for a person under twenty-one, but many will. Also many parties that happen off campus provide alcohol to any one who can pay the $3 to $5 cover charge. According to a resent survey conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), 49% of under age drinkers get it from someone over the age of 21 .
Here at California University many of the parties located off this campus provide alcohol. There will be one person that will buy three kegs of beer and bring them to a house full of teenagers. Surely someone knows that everyone at these parties is not twenty-one. Half of all college students (50%) report drinking in the past month (TRU).