A car full of mostly minors at 4 in the morning, you know what they where doing. Even if someone was "sobering" up, after a late night, your having trouble keeping your eyes open. Does not help it was a bit foggy and misty.

Did you read the story today about fatalities up due to drunk driving? I say 3-5 years losing your licence for your first DUI might do the trick, and a week in jail, or more.

Of course they had been drinking. The only people on the road that time of the morning are those coming home from the bars or going to work. If they were in fact coming from power and light district that's a long way to go.

I just glad that they didn't injure anyone else here.

Are you really defending a 19 year old driver who was drinking but "not drunk" and driving around with your kid in the car? On top of that the car had more people with seat belts and all were not buckled in?

It is parents like you that keep me up at night in fear of what you allow your children to do that will affect mine. I can't imagine getting a late night call about a wreck like this - it has to be one of the more awful things that can happen to a person. But instead of acknowledging that the kids were doing something stupid or even better keeping your mouth shut - you are trying to DEFEND this behavior!! I have to say that I am appalled and disgusted. You should be teaching your kids about what they did wrong here and changing the behavior before someone does get killed or they hurt someone else with their destructive habits.

I cannot remember how many accidents I went to as a volunteer firefighter that were related to drugs or alcohol. There were things that I can't "unsee." I would lie awake at night thinking about how terrified I was that I would be called out to cut my wife or children out of a car. It amazes me that there are so many people out there that will act like this senseless act of driving after drinking is OK - when you are endangering your life and mine. Until we start punishing this behavior and making it socially unacceptable people will keep dying in this senseless way.

I tend to believe KHP who were on the scene as opposed to a mother of a child involved who wants to beileve they are all perfect little angels.

Maybe that's just me.

KLH3 defines bad parent. It IS parents like you, that give us(20 year old kids) a bad name. You try to be your kid's best friend, but all you do is spoil them into stupidity. Stupid enough to get in a car with a capacity of 5, and pack it with 8, And to drive drunk, yes klh3 we are not going to listen to you as you put your kid(s) on a pedestal.

The KANSAS HIGHWAY PATROL said alcohol was a factor in the crash, the police.

@everyone else that noticed, THE first thing I saw in klh3's post was the "four wearing seatbelts..." comment. My mind was transported to yesterday to her "three wearing seatbelts.."

@klh3 You said we should look at the dangers of driving without a seatbelt. Instead I'm going to look at the stupid kid's involved as the real danger. Don't defend them. They made their bed, let them sleep in it.

KLH3-

Denial denial. It's laughable to say that the kid was 19 and therefore not even able to be drinking. Just like I'm sure that the younger ones weren't drinking either. And that the alcohol they all consumed couldn't possibly have been purchased by the 21 yr old (that they reported being in the accident as well in an earlier article).

This is just sad.

It's amazing that no matter how many times you reiterate something to an official, they seem to never get the story straight.

As eyewitness to the accident, and driver, I can state in truth every detail as to what had happened, and how things progressed.

KLH is a wonderful woman, and mother to my friend, and such slander is completely irresponsible and unbecoming of anyone deeming themselves as mature-minded adults.

To clarify, my name is Jay N Czervinske, born February 19th, 1990. I'm 19, still maturing and in no way completely unaware of the situation and repercussions of an even like this.

Driving back from KC, 39th and the Broadway area to be specific, for all those of you who speculate and have nothing better to do than mindlessly pore over every trauma accident, tune into every teenage disaster, and write outrageous posts and comments to somehow make what you do in your meaningless, typical and mundane lives is pathetic.

To set the record straight, three of us did have our seatbelts on, the 17 year old female, Angela, the 21 year old, and myself. It's the seatbelf that saved my life and always has. There isn't a day that I don't wear one, and this day included.

The drinking statement is accurate, however I believe that it was completely blown out of proportion. Knowing I had to be DD that night, I stopped the drinking - which had only been two 3.2 beers, at 11. That gives me 5 1/2 hours until the time we left. How many of you can say that you haven't driven home, after having that nice glass of wine with your meal, or that beer while you were out? Many of you can't, and while you might think that you've had better experience, or you know that you can handle what you drink, you've still done it.

Honestly the accident had nothing to do with alcohol, it had nothing to do with having 8 kids in the car, and it had nothing to do with spoiled Johnson County kids. The fact of the matter is, at 4:00 in the morning, who wouldn't be a bit tired, who wouldn't want to go home, and read a book or watch a movie until you fell asleep? Who would not instantly think to swerve after registering a buck in the lane going 70 down a dark misty highway? Accidents like this happen all the time, even to those who think it will never happen to them.

Think before you jot down a bunch of hypocritical, slanderous and meaningless babble. America is already full of media-starving idiots, you're only adding kindle to the fire.

It's a fact of life that apparently you are missing out on. Things like this happen all over the world, and to think that you're outraged about something you can't change, or something that doesn't conform to what your morals or ethics lead you to believe is ridiculous.

The state is doing a really good job on cracking down on drunk drivers, I'll give them that. But what can you say for the 7 or so police we drove past on the way to Lawrence? They were lazy and didn't care? What about the one that drove with us for a bit on I-35? Can any of you live with yourselves knowing they let a "drunk" driver get away?

Anger towards amazingly horrific accidents like this is just as silly as trying to ban books that reference the n-word, or throwing paint on fur-wearers, or poking fun at someone elses religion.

Or did you forget that? The best we as humans can do is learn from others, and learn to accept. Empathy is key, trying to realize what goes on in anothers' life or what they must have been thinking is what silly people like you seem to forget.

jnc,

Well...you can have been drinking and not be drunk, true. Are you even supposed to be drinking 3.2 beer at age 19? Are you supposed to be drinking AT ALL if you're the DD? I don't want my DD drinking alcohol AT ALL.

You can have been drinking, or not, and still swerve to miss a deer. If you swerved hard enough to roll your vehicle, you need to learn to moderate your reactions. Perhaps you weren't as un-drunk as you thought.

I have consumed alcohol many times in my life. I've been buzzed, tipsy, tanked, and even stumbling blind drunk. But I have never in my entire life driven drunk, not even once. Now, I won't even drive after one drink. Nope.

I hope you won't, either, and I hope you will never put more people in your vehicle than there are seat belts to buckle around them.

You all were incredibly lucky, this time. This should change your life and make you smarter. Otherwise you're a candidate for a Darwin Award, and will probably take out some innocent other driver with you.

JNC: Three things I see wrong with what you did.

1. You admitted drinking and you are NOT 21. It doesn't matter WHAT KIND OF ALCOHOL YOU DRANK. That is illegal.
   

2. You were driving a normal speed on a road while it was misting. You are supposed to adjust your speed per the road conditions. 65-70 is too fast while there is precipitation.

3. You admitted to being sleepy while driving.
   

As I see it, you must have been sleeping during driver's ed, or did you even take driver's ed? Whatever your answer, I think you should be forced to take another driving course because you didn't learn the important rules the first time around.

Three strikes. YOU'RE OUT! The next time could cost you your life. Is that what you want for your family and friends? You're selfish. THINK NEXT TIME.

As far as the drinking is concerned, the issue may be whether the drinker was in Kansas or Missouri.

Google this: Exceptions to Minimum Age of 21 for Consumption of Alcohol

Click on the link and look at the map.

Without knowing whether the vehicle involved is repairable to the point where it can be driven again, I'd like to offer a couple of thoughts for the benefit of any younger drivers who are reading this thread:

The Honda CR-V is an excellent vehicle. However, when moving at freeway speeds it is a bit more susceptible to roll-over due to its short wheelbase and tall profile. This inherent roll-over susceptibility is aggravated if the vehicle carries its normal load of passengers. Roll-over becomoes more likely yet if the recommended passenger load is exceeded. What happens in both cases is the vehicle's center of gravity is raised. So much weight located above the axles lets the vehicle tip over easier during any turning maneuver, even one as commonplace as a right- or left-hand turn executed at slow speed at a city street intersection.

Driving on K-10 Highway between KC and Lawrence at 4 a.m. is actually a very safe idea. There is much less vehicle traffic to contend with at such an early hour. But on our state's highways, motor vehicle traffic is never the only concern during pre-dawn hours. No matter what month of the year it is, deer and many other animals are more active and they will pop out of the ditch and run or walk in front of you. Seeing them triggers an avoidance reaction; you instinctively want to steer away to keep from hitting them.

When driving at night, or during early-morning hours, the lighter flow of traffic lets you relax and enjoy the driving experience and the company of your passengers. It is good to always keep in mind that the posted speed limit is exactly that: It is the maximum speed allowed. It is not a speed requirement. In other words, if the sign says 70 mph, that doesn't mean you have to go 70 under all conditions.

When driving in the dark, or in mist, rain, snow, or strong cross winds, take advantage of that right-hand lane. Camp out in that lane and drive along slowly enough that your headlights even on low beam let you see things far enough ahead that you can come to a complete stop if you need to. Many wild animals don't just run across the highway, they run onto the highway then stop in confusion.

If the drive to wherever you're going takes a little longer by doing things this way, so what? Think of all the good music you can listen to while you're easing down the road.

I'm thinking that 5 hours after the fact, there would be no physical evidence remaining in his body - and without a blood test and/or any other form of testing, unless he was "Mirandized" before he said he had been drinking earlier, that would be pretty difficult to prove in court.

Not saying any of what happened was smart, but possibly no laws can be proven to have been broken.

"imastinker (Anonymous) says…

Are you really defending a 19 year old driver who was drinking but “not drunk” and driving around with your kid in the car? On top of that the car had more people with seat belts and all were not buckled in?

It is parents like you that keep me up at night in fear of what you allow your children to do that will affect mine."

I'm with imastinker. I have 2 children that are now in their 20's and I despised parents like kl whatever when my kids were teenagers. To me, it wouldn't matter to me if the kids were having milk and cookies in K.C. and driving back to Lawrence at 4:00 a.m., with each person fully strapped in a Volvo with individual Has devices. What is a 17 year old doing out at 4:00 in the morning? It's these types of parents that serve alcohol at parties at their homes because they believe it's better to have the kids drink at their home rather than be on the road. It's that type of parent that make those of us that set reasonable curfews for our teenagers seem like out of touch ogres.

If the driver is actually the one posting, attorneys are having a field day with the "gift."

May be wrong, but I thought Kansas law changed this year that anytime DUI is suspected they can do blood tests. Know that's a fact of life in some states.

I would just like it fully noted, not all 20 year old KU students(assume that is the case) are as stupid and stuck up as jnc.

@JNC 1. You admited to drinking before driving, as a minor. 2. Admited to driving 70, when it was hard to see while driving. 3. Admited to driving while being tired. 4. You admited to cramming your car past capacity.

I think it is only fair your license to drive be removed until you are 21. You put many people's lives in danger by your inability to think rationally, and have proven yourself incapable of being an intelligent driver.

TOB - "They don't. I'm assuming they brought it from Kansas. Or he's lying. "

I am assuming one of these two things too.

Here's what happened.

jnc-

I'm a friend of one of the people in the car, and I'm glad to hear that you're doing okay. However, I wouldn't try to reason with the posters on here as most of them have preconceived notions on anything and everything and very rarely can those opinions be changed. So I'd quit trying to legitimize/ explain what happened and surround yourself with good friends.

i am one of the people who was in the accident and would like to clarify a lot.

first off, yes the driver had 2 beers, both finished before 10 that night. yes, he is a minor and shouldn't have been drinking at all. but consider the fact that by 4 am, none of the alcohol would still be in his system, so the 2 beers 6 hours previous had no effect on the accident.

secondly, we are all fully aware at how irresponsible it was to leave kansas city to go home in lawrence with 5 of us not wearing a seat belt. we have learned our lesson and regret our decision completely. every time i have been to the hospital to visit my friends because of our ludicrous decision, it is a painful reminder of how easily this situation could have and should have been avoided. to keep ramming this at us only hurts us more than we already do.

thirdly, the deer. we have been taught since the accident that you are supposed to just hit the deer, or any animal for that matter. this is easier said than done. when you are in a car and see a deer, instinct says to get out of its way. jay only reacted how instinct told him to. yes, many people will say that they would have done differently, and maybe many have. jay tried to avoid the deer. at night, the deer is so suddenly in front of you that it is very easy to understand that overcorrecting is too easy to do. not saying it is right, but its understandable. overcorrecting causes thousands of accidents all over the united states. it is unfortunate, but true. do not look at jay like the only driver to ever overcorrect. i am sure that plenty of older and more experienced drivers have overcorrected causing different levels of damage.

fourthly, i would like to point out that it is shameful that all of you are gossiping and speculating about an accident that landed me and 7 of my closest friends in the hospital. my best friend since 7th grade was in a coma from this. she was taken off the ventilator today and thankfully, it looks like she will make a full recovery. if you are going to make a statement on an article, that is full of inaccuracies in the first place, then you better damn well know what your talking about and the effect your words will have. no one seemed to take that into consideration. we are well aware of how incredibly foolish our decision was. we are well aware that we should all be dead. none of you know what our parents have said to us, what we have said to each other, and how we feel individually about this. we HAVE learned our lesson. obviously, i am not expecting anyone to sugar coat what happened. but i do expect people to treat others with respect. i would like to understand why any of you feel the need to bash people you dont know about a situation you werent involved in.

we are incredibly blessed to have the chance to take the lesson we've learned and act on it. someone was looking out for us that night, and we are not going to waste the second chance we have been given.

First, the people in the vehicle should stop posting statements. They're potentially incriminating and just make their defense attorneys' jobs more difficult; they're "statements against interest" and can be admitted as such into evidence. The place to argue your case is in court, not in the newspaper or on the Internet. Since people have to register to post on this site, IPs can be traced back to particular computers and postings can be connected with the people making them. If there are any lawsuits which arise out of this, personal injury lawyers will have a field day with the statements already made.

Second, the legal limit for drivers under 21 is .02, not .08 BAC. If alcohol were suspected as a factor in the accident, which might possibly be the case if two people in the vehicle were admittedly drunk, blood samples would be taken and tested for BAC from the driver and perhaps the passengers as well. This would happen at the hospital, and BAC from blood tests taken up to 2 hours after the traffic stop is admissible. This evidence might not be released until the time of the trial, especially if it were a medical record which is protected by Federal law. In exchange for a Kansas driver's license, drivers give implied consent for blood samples to be drawn, or breath tests given, in the case that there is probable cause to believe that they are operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs. ER personnel will run a blood analysis anyway as part of medical diagnosis, and this test will pick up BAC.

I find it interesting that all of the "posters" being in the accident or related to to people in the accident choose posting names that start with 3 letters.

klh3 hrs17 and jnc...

"imastinker (Anonymous) says…

This is why the drinking age should be 16 and the driving age should be 21."

And how.

It's insane how cheap and how easy it is to get a driver's license here. A drinking age of 21 is ludicrous, and causes more problems than it solves.

@ Larrynative, @ mlgv

Hat tip to you both.

@happy_go_lucky Why are you so useless?

The driver wasn't drunk, I think that ALSO has been established, looooong time ago.

dadof3 ?? They wouldn't of killed you because it was 4 a.m not 11 p.m and again the driver wasn't drunk. Thank you for stating the obvious, again. Yes, I'm sure if their friend died they'd be sulking around, but she didn't. Thankfully. Also no need to compare apple to oranges, they learned THEIR lesson nothing to do with you or you family. It was stupid what they did, once again obvious. The kids were just trying to let everyone know that the driver wasn't drunk, he tried to avoid a deer which was a dangerous move and all the facts in the article were wrong. Not once have either of them try to justify what they did was right, they just wanted the truth. Which is not idiotic, thank you.

@ damnitimpissed Thank you. @happy_go_lucky I didn't know the space button had an age limit.

I don't think switching up the laws will change anything, kids will always always find away around it. That's why taking away their DL probabley won't make a difference. Other people can drive, other people can provide the liquor. Just like before. So again congradulations on making no point. ALSO @dadof3 I'm sure the kids didn't willingly want to end up in the hospital and cause so much trouble, so if they want to say sorry. Let them. If they didn't then you'd find something else to complain about.

mlgv, it is actually an enter button, not the space. attempt at witty retort disabled

And alcohol was a contributing factor to the accident, so says the Highway Patrol.

dadof3, has every right to make his statement about the lesson learned crap they are throwing around. Every citizen who uses the highway to travel has the right.

Ironically mlgv, you never asserted any fact of your own, besides wrong facts(alcohol related drivel) and the "assertion" that other people were wrong. So in the end, your post was utterely pointless.

Alcohol was a factor, everyone has the right to be mad at kids driving under the influence. The "apples to oranges" nonsense, is just that. What dadof3 said was actually not a comparison in reality, it was a statement therefor saying "apples to oranges" has no intelligent use in the context.

mlgv THEY DID willingly end up in the hospital, they set up the entire situation to occur by their actions,

alcohol+overloaded soapbox+driving at speeds not good for road conditions(mist)+driving tired+swerving excessively(to rool a car) to avoid a "deer"(or box on the road, maybe even a flowerpot, but they call it a deer to make it look better)+not wearing seatbelts=a situation developed all by their actions and thus all outcomes are of their own design.