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A tragic reminder: The danger of teenage drunken driving

Published 2/22/2010 in Local News

By KATHY HANKS

Special to The Telegram

NESS CITY -- Three names surrounded by hearts on the rear window of the Ford pickup truck outside the Ness City High School hint of the emotions of its driver.

The message on the glass: "Miss you guys," and underneath the names Dustin, Chris and Josh.

But few will talk in this small county of 2,945 about what the sign really means.

The anguish that family, friends, teachers and the community are feeling since the deaths of 18-year-old Joshua Stieben on Dec. 27; 17-year-old Chris Rupp on Aug. 2; and 18-year-old Dustin Johnson, Feb. 8, 2009, is still too raw.

Yet, according to Kansas Highway Patrol reports, the three separate fatality accidents were caused by underage drinking and driving. This has sent a wake-up call to some in the community, and those willing to speak about the accidents know they need to take responsibility in stopping the problem.

"We've had what appear fatalities with alcohol as contributing factors, there have been near misses, and alcohol served at parties with adults present," said Ness County resident Dennis McNinch, a concerned father of an 18-year-old. "When you have children behind the wheel, when it's 25 miles from home, it's hard for an adult to drive impaired, what's more a child.

"As a community, we need to focus and have awareness and take personal responsibility of what we can do at home, at school, through law enforcement and peer pressure to see if we can't get some of this corralled," McNinch said.

While the December accident that killed Stieben, a Bazine resident, happened on an icy rural road, it was alcohol that contributed to the accident, not adverse weather conditions, according to Kansas Highway Patrol's Steven Sites, who filed the accident report.

Stieben's blood-alcohol level was 0.25 percent, three times the 0.08 percent the law says is legally drunk.

"In my opinion, when you have a BAC of 0.25, you can barely walk," Sites said. "It's a fact that alcohol contributed. If he wouldn't have been intoxicated, he would have had better judgment on icy roads."

Likewise, Rupp's alcohol level at the time of his crash was 0.17. Johnson's was 0.08, according to KHP records.

"Our agency is concerned about the fact that we had three fatalities of young people in a very close geographic region in a short period of time," said Sgt. Ron Knoefel, with the KHP. "We need to look at ways to try to prevent this in the future."

McNinch was cautious talking with The News, and he stressed his intent in speaking up wasn't to point fingers. He was not saying they were bad kids, but these were tragic circumstances, with not-so-wise choices being made.

"The thing I look at and tell my kids is that my closest encounters with death were when I was a young kid drinking and behind the wheel of a vehicle," he said. "I know firsthand what this stuff will do. It's not a good choice. By the grace of God I survived."

Reality check

After the second fatality accident, several residents in the community decided it was time to make some changes and find a place where teens could hang out on weekends.

Jerry Clarke, owner of the local paper and the father of two high school boys, worked with Russell King, the local Baptist minister, to open a place where kids could go on Saturdays and not be involved in drinking. They wanted to include all the kids in the county, with two school districts, Ness City USD 303 and Western Plains USD 106. They didn't limit the center to Ness City youths, but opened it to Bazine, Ransom, Utica and Brownell.

"We gave them a place, cheap pizza, and a snooker table in the Baptist church basement," Clarke said. "No adults were allowed to go in, and it was opened from 8 to midnight."

Maybe 10 or 11 kids would show up. After four months it went the way of other well-intended plans. Clarke admitted the youth center concept had shortcomings. It was in a church, a place many teens just want to see on Sunday. Had there been a building on Main Street, it might have worked, Clarke said, but this was the only place they could come up with. Even one of Clarke's own children went once and never returned.

"It wasn't the cool thing to do," Clarke said. By mid-December they had given up on the idea.

The third fatality came at the end of December, during Christmas break. As a father of two high school boys, Clarke said he was devastated when he heard the news.

"We're all grieving for them," Clarke said.

A week after Stieben's accident, The Ness County News included his obituary, as well as a letter to the editor by Russell King, stating, "One death did not change any behavior. Two deaths did not stop common practice. I doubt three deaths will do any more. Nothing will change until people change."

King ended the letter saying he prayed for better things for the current 18-year-olds of Ness County.

Lots of questions

Across the courthouse square in Ness City, sitting behind his desk at the town's law enforcement center, Sheriff Bryan Whipple explained that despite attending Western Plains School, in Ransom, Stieben was friends with Johnson and Rupp, who had been students at Ness City High School.

"The kids are one big, happy family," Whipple said.

Since the fatalities, he has been thinking of what he could be doing to help the youths in his community. He also wonders what law enforcement could do to improve and make more of an effort to help solve the problem.

"I think of a lot of things," Whipple said. "I've been thinking of how to get the message across to the kids and make an impact."

He has thought about helping to start a Students Against Destructive Decisions chapter in the schools. But he wonders if the students would be interested and what it would take to get started. Perhaps funding would come through fundraising and maybe members of the community would help out with it.

One thing in place to help combat underage drinking is the use of a portable breathalyzer to check teens before they can enter the high school's after-prom party. Whipple said recent conversations with school administrators have touched on expanding the device's use at the homecoming dance.

Also, the sheriff's department will be sending officers to a special training this month, so they can conduct random sobriety checkpoints throughout the county.

At the Ness County school district office, Randall Jansonius said recently the school board has discussed policies regarding monitoring alcohol use on school property. While he didn't say there was a drinking problem, he confirmed that during a powder puff football game last fall students attended the event after consuming alcohol.

"I don't know the exact number," Jansonius said. But the students were disciplined. He said they haven't seen too many problems of students drinking at school events, and nothing outstanding, but he could recall one isolated incident four years ago during a basketball game.

Tom Flax, principal of Ness City High School, admitted there was a teenage drinking problem, but it was the same problem he experienced 23 years ago when he was a teen growing up in Ness County.

Despite the deaths of two of his students who were the best of friends, he still wonders how anyone can measure whether the student body is getting the message.

"Who's to know if kids learned from Dustin and Chris and have gotten a ride home?" Flax said. "We won't know."

The numbers

The Kansas Department of Transportation keeps statewide statistics regarding fatality traffic crashes dating back to 1990.

According to those records, in 1990 there were 22 alcohol-related fatalities out of 637 alcohol-related crashes with drivers under 21. In 2008, the most current data available, the numbers had decreased by four, with 18 alcohol-related fatalities out of 556 alcohol-related crashes.

In 20 years, the percentage has decreased only two-tenths of a percent, despite the increase in drug and alcohol awareness programs at school.

Meanwhile, in 2007, alcohol-related crashes of those under age 21 accounted for 16 percent of all alcohol-related fatalities.

Recommendations made in KDOT's annual report include providing education for high school students on the dangers of impaired driving. They also recommended developing material and implementing activities aimed at prospective drivers between the ages of 12 and 14, to start educating them early about the risks of alcohol use and its effect on safe driving.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Underage Drinking Research Initiative reports each year about 5,000 youths under age 21 die from motor vehicle crashes nationwide.

Starting a SADD chapter in Ness County would not be a new step. The organization was active in the past, at Ness City High School and at Ransom High School, but they no longer exist according to Maria Torrez Anderson, SADD state coordinator.

"This is where parents need to step in if this is happening to their children, and students need to take a leadership role if they are losing their friends and classmates," Torrez Anderson said. "Step up, take it to the school board, and tell them why you want SADD in your high school. They need to speak to adults and let them know."

There is no expense or membership fee to start a local chapter.

A Ripple effect

Ness County farmer Eric Weeks was feeding cattle about 8 a.m. the Sunday after Christmas.

As he glanced through some trees down a narrow lane, he saw Stieben's crumpled pickup on its side.

When he couldn't get a response from Stieben inside the truck, he quickly called 911.

What the farmer saw that morning touched him deeply.

"In this county you know a lot of people," Weeks said. Though he didn't know Stieben personally, they had mutual friends, and he knew Stieben was a nice kid.

"The cowboy Casanova." was how Western Plains Superintendent Kerry Lacock remembered his student. At the memorial service held for Stieben at the school's gymnasium, attended by more than 1,000 mourners, there was picture after picture of him with different girls.

"He was very loveable," Lacock said.

Family and friends contacted by The News were deeply grieving and couldn't speak of the deaths.

As a parent, McNinch is worried, not just for his own kids, but for all kids. Ness County is a small enough community, and he believes they should take care of their own.

Now, almost two months after Stieben's death, Clarke said little has changed.

"And nothing looks like it will change," Clarke said, though he added with a hopeful tone in his voice, "In March, the Kansas Highway Patrol will come and talk to the students."

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