Don't Drink or You Maybe Won't be Able to Drive

By Laura Oppenheimer in Food on Mar 27, 2007 4:45PM

When five teenagers from Oswego died last month in a horrifying car accident after leaving a party, it wasn't hard to retrace their steps to find a party with a whole lot of booze. Those killed — and the driver, 23-year-old Sandra Vasquez — had all been at a house party where alcohol was served to minors.

In response, State Rep. Tom Cross (R-Oswego), is proposing legislation that would suspend any teenager's driver's license for three months if they are caught drinking. Cross said at a Monday news conference that at that age "there is nothing more important than being able to drive. Not to be crass, but we thinking being alive is probably more important than being able to drive. But we digress.

Color Chicagoist ignorant, but we already thought this was a law. While we don't want to encourage teen drinking per se, we did a bit of imbibing before our 21st birthday, and would have been more than a little bummed if our driving privileges were taken away. That being said, we never really hurt anything when drinking except our liver and possibly our GPA.

What do you think? Would this legislation be a teen drinking deterrent or just another way for legislators to make it seem like they are doing something to curb the inevitable?

Image via Youth Change.