Every 51 minutes in the United States, someone dies from a car crash that involves an alcohol-impaired driver, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 28 people every day.

Despite these grim statistics, people regularly take the risk of driving under the influence, putting their lives and the lives of others on the line. Some people do it so often that they believe that they just as good driving buzzed or drunk that they are sober. That is not acceptable on any level.

I personally have had someone very close to me involved in an alcohol-impaired motor vehicle accident. My older brother Andrew was involved in a single vehicle car crash on November 1st. He was the one under the influence. Luckily he was by himself and no one else was injured. I know when my brother was leaving a bar downtown, he thought he would make it home safely because he had been going out to drink almost everyday. This night though, he was not so lucky. My brother survived this horrible car crash but not without suffering many physical and mental consequences.

I remember that day so vividly. I woke up on a school day at 5 in the morning and my grandma was supposed to take me to school because my mom had to go into work early that day. As soon as she woke me up, I knew something was wrong because she had woken me up early. “Britney, you and your sister need to wake up, we have to go,” she said with her voice shaking and indicating that something was wrong. I remember looking at her so confused as to why she woke me up an hour and a half before I needed to be awake. I could tell she saw the confusion on my face so she says “Your brother has been in a car accident, We need to go to the hospital right now.” I didn’t think much of it at first because my brother had been getting into a bit of trouble for a few years. As I got ready, my brain started racing and I thought to myself “We wouldn’t be going to the hospital if nothing was seriously wrong.”

My grandma, sister and I approach my mother and she gave it to us straight. “Andrew is in a coma right now and this can go three ways: he can wake up from this coma, stay in a vegetative state or he can pass away.” I was trying so hard to be strong, but as soon as my mom was finished, I bawled. My absolute best friend was in a coma, laying in a hospital bed. My first time seeing him after the accident was scary. He was on a breathing machine and had a tube in his head because he was diagnosed with a severe traumatic brain injury.

Three days passed and my brother finally woke up from his coma. I was relieved, but I could tell he was different. He damaged his brain so badly that he forgot many things. He damaged his whole entire brain but the frontal lobe was suffering badly. The frontal lobe of the brain contains reasoning, language, long-term memory, impulse control, problem solving, emotions, motor function, initiation and social/sexual development. My brother was basically like a grown baby. He was no longer potty trained, he couldn’t control his emotions, he had to learn how to walk again. It took him two weeks to start speaking again and he couldn’t even do a simple task like bring a fork up to his face. My brother was released from the hospital a week after his accident but the next step was therapy. Andrew was in therapy for two months and is now still in outpatient therapy, which means he is now home but he has to go to the rehab center to do his therapy.

If you find yourself considering taking the risk of driving under the influence, keep in mind what happened to my brother and ask yourself if you want to take the same gamble.