In this age of Uber and “in-bar” breathalyzer tests, and designated drivers…it is amazing how many people still crawl behind the wheel and end up with a DUI arrest. No one can claim ignorance anymore on this matter. Everyone knows and even opinion polls conducted in bars came away with drinkers overwhelmingly aware of the dangers of drinking and driving. And no, those dangers did not include an arrest for DUI, only the prospects of getting killed or maimed or killing and injuring someone else.
Still, DUI arrests are piling up all the time. Just so you are aware, creative methods are now being used to nudge you towards getting a cab next time.
DUI is becoming more than a big fine, an appearance before a judge and traffic school. Your next DUI could give you some real nightmares for a long time to come.
Dozens of Forsyth County, Georgia, convicted DUI drivers are now getting a very tough lesson on the dangers of drinking, driving and disobeying all kinds of traffic rules. These people are now being ordered by the Forsyth County Court to tour McDonald & Son Funeral Home and Crematory in Cumming.
“This is reality right here, reality because the decisions you are making are going to kill you,” said Rick Wiggins, the funeral director.
No, privacy issues prevent the mortuary from showing them actual dead bodies. However, showing them edited videos and photos that were taken in the facility room without identifying the corpses had the same chilling effect. To be that close to the table where a body, ripped apart in a traffic accident and then dissected by the coroner, was finally re-assembled, Frankenstein style, for a final burial — no horror movie or TV program fully captures the stomach wrenching awfulness.
The adults winced as they saw very graphic pictures from traffic accidents and jaywalkers killed on police video. Then, they got to tour an embalming facility and a crematory, learning about the conditions of bodies torn apart by collisions, then taken to be examined and cut up by coroner autopsies.
Finally, all the parts are transported to the funeral home and then re-assembled by embalmers. Photos were shown of actual. close up mortuary work in progress. Tears flowed, sobs followed. Some were racing for bathroom facilities to be sick, realizing they could be the next one laid out and roughly sewn back together for packing in a casket…or a visit to a retort.
Seventeen of the DUI drivers were from Forsyth County and received arrests during a DUI checkpoint night on Atlanta Road and Nichols Road.
The Forsyth County Court ordered others there for offenses like rolling a stop sign and speeding.
They all spent an hour visiting the embalming room. Then they all took a drive to the crematory. They learned a retort is a blast furnace used for reducing humans to ash. It was far more than they ever wanted to know about death and what comes next for what’s left of you.
“You are going in that steel box machine right there for three hours at 1,675 degrees,” Wiggins said. “And what’s left of your remains gets crushed into dust.”
The program finished with DUI drivers writing and reading aloud their own obituaries to their families, who were also required to attend.
“I’d much rather be able to see it in a video and stop it from happening then have him or anybody else go through that,” Jerry Martin, a parent, of one young DUI Driver.
“I learned what being in that situation does to the people around me, and it encourages me to make better decisions,” driver Troy Martin said.
Yes, American Bars want you to responsibly enjoy drinking, and as the man said - please make better decisions.
Thanks for reading.
