by Elizabeth Shepard

About the author: Elizabeth Shepard is a freelance journalist. The following essay is excerpted from a cover story she wrote for Driven, the magazine of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Eighteen-year-old Leah Bean gave up alcohol in 1998. During her junior year in high school, Leah’s best friend, April, was killed in a crash after leaving a party where kids had been drinking. The 19-year-old driver with whom April was riding crashed the car while driving with a blood alcohol content of .20 percent—more than twice the legal adult limit in Tennessee. According to Leah, the teens knew that party-goers were drinking and that the store which sold the teens alcohol was notorious for not checking IDs. But Leah echoes other teens’ feelings of invincibility, admitting...