COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Drowsy driving causes 100,000 accidents each year with 4% of the crashes resulting in deaths. The Coldwater Noon Rotary Club’s meeting this week included a presentation on drowsy, districted, drunk, and drugged driving.
The program was delivered on Tuesday by guest speaker Louise Crist, a registered nurse for more than 30 years. Crist administers a college scholarship fund started in 2011 to help future health care professionals in Branch County with their college expenses. The fund was created in memory of Crist’s daughter Jillian, a 2010 graduate of Coldwater High School who the next year was killed in a car accident at the age of 19.
Jilllian’s lifelong dream was to become a neonatal nurse and she was taking classes at Kellogg Community College to pursue her degree. Louise Crist said when alcohol has been added to the system of a drowsy driver, it spells disaster. She explained the only way to get rid of alcohol in your system is to breathe, so coffee and cold showers don’t work.
According to Crist, if you sleep after alcohol, you don’t breathe nearly as fast so it takes much longer to get rid of it. She said you need to allow at least 8 hours no matter what size you are for the alcohol to leave your system and if you feel hungover the next morning, it means you still have a very significant amount of alcohol left in your system.
Crist said to date the Jillian Crist Memorial Scholarship fund has awarded 52 scholarships. Fund raisers include an annual mud volleyball tournament and memorial gymnastics tournament. Jillian was a tri-captain on the CHS gymnastics team.
