Death While Intoxicated

In Southeast Texas right now, a DWI fatality isn’t something abstract. The death of Beaumont Police Officer Lisa Beaulieu on April 27 is still an open wound. It will be for a long, long time.

The thought of that fine young woman being struck by a car and thrown off an overpass to the pavement below is too painful to think about.

For someone like me who grew up in St. Louis, Mo., the perils of drunk driving are reinforced in another way.

A young pitcher on the Cardinals named Josh Hancock was killed early last Sunday. His SUV slammed into the rear of a tow truck stopped alongside the highway — with its lights flashing.

As a lot of people — like me — suspected, Hancock was hammered when it happened. His blood-alcohol level was tragically high — 0.157. Worse yet, 8.5 grams of marijuana and a glass pipe were found in his crumpled Ford Explorer.

Hancock was speeding (68 in a 55 zone) when it happened, talking on a cell phone and not wearing a seat belt. He had spent the evening at a sports bar in St. Louis owned by former Cardinal third-baseman Mike Shannon. The woman he was talking to when it happened said he was going to another bar.

As much as Cardinal fans grieve for him and his family, it’s plain to see that his death was completely unnecessary.

Before Friday’s first home game since Hancock’s death, the Cardinals banned alcohol in the clubhouse. Manager Tony La Russa lamely said the move was mostly symbolic “because our guys don’t stay in the clubhouse to drink.”

I don’t know if the Cardinals have more of a collective drinking problem than any other team of young, rich athletes who think they are invincible. But La Russa himself got a DWI in Florida during spring training.

When I went to a Cardinal game in St. Louis a few years ago with my son, I was saddened to hear about a cop who was directing traffic after a game and hit by a drunk driver. The officer lived … but he lost both legs.

You’ve heard it a thousand times: Don’t drink and drive. Some folks do it anyway. Either they don’t care what happens, or they think they’ll somehow beat the odds once again.

If they keep it up, their number will come up. If they kill only themselves like Josh Hancock, that’s one thing. If someone like Lisa Beaulieu is killed, that’s entirely different.

If you drink and drive, you need to think about these things. Then you need to stop doing it.