UGA ASAP and UMADD Candlelight Vigil

As the audience stood shivering, 22-year-old Alene Batchelor of Decatur, spoke of her involvement in a July 2001 car accident that fatally injured her younger brother. The speech was the primary focus of a candlelight vigil held in the University of Georgia Tate Center Plaza on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, in Athens, GA.
Batchelor provided a second by second description of the crash. The Ford Explorer was traveling on I-285 in Atlanta with four other members of her family and was clipped from behind by an intoxicated driver. The vehicle spun out of control, flipping the vehicle onto its top. After unbuckling her seatbelt, she recalled falling to the roof of the overturned car and trying to account for each passenger. When all but one was accounted for, she removed herself from the wreckage and saw her brother lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.
“I dropped to my knees and started praying,” she said quietly. “Selfishly I said, ‘God I don’t care if he lives as a vegetable, just as long as he lives.’”
She was told the news of his death after being taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“This spring he would’ve gone to his senior prom, but he won’t all because someone decided to drive drunk” she said.
Batchelor has been sharing her as a supporter and promoter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and UMADD, who teamed up with representatives from Advocating Safe Alternatives for Peers, ASAP, to hold the vigil in memory of all of those who had been negatively affected by drunk driving or other alcohol related events. Batchelor has traveled with MADD to help educate others since graduating from Agnes Scott College in 2008.
MADD was created in 1980 to stop drunk driving, support the victims of drunk driving and prevent underage drinking. UMADD includes campus-based groups that spread awareness of the dangers of getting behind the wheel while under the influence.
According to MADD’s website, alcohol related traffic accidents resulted in an estimated 12,998 deaths in 2007, constituting 31.7 percent of the 41,059 traffic deaths that year. This was a 3.7 percent decline from 2006, as reported by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
Just over 10 people were in attendance at the vigil, including UGA students and ASAP representatives Joey Marmorato and Deepi Kaur. Marmorato took the stage to explain the group’s efforts in providing low risk alternatives to alcohol and drug use and to increase awareness of the consequences of irresponsible drinking.
Deepi Kaur, a fourth year from Augusta who manages the financial grants for ASAP, explained the 0-1-3 guideline to making low risk choices: zero drinks if one is driving, pregnant, taking medication or under the legal drinking age; otherwise only one drink only per hour and no more than three drinks daily or on one specific occasion.
“We are not a prohibitionist group,” said Kaur. “We are just making people aware of the consequences of drinking.”
Stephanie Kootsikas, the Youth Program Specialist for MADD Georgia, spoke of her support for the organizations’ endeavors and thanked Batchelor for her courage and candor.
As candles burned dimly, people flipped through ASAP pamphlets and shared thoughts and personal experiences. UMADD and ASAP are always looking for new members. For more information on these organizations, visit their websites at http://www.madd.org/, http://www.umadd.org/ and www.uga.edu/asap/.