Americans love their fast-food burgers. We in Mesa have no shortage of places selling the guilty pleasures, that’s for sure. Many people love the convenience: they pull in, grab their food in a few minutes and pull back out again.
Mesa police say a man who pulled into the Burger King on University Drive near Lindsay Road was so intoxicated that he couldn’t even successfully complete even that simple drive-in maneuver. The apparently drunk driver crashed his vehicle into the building and seriously injured someone inside.
According to a news report, the man pulled into the drive-through and ordered food. Employees suspected that he was intoxicated and asked him to pull his vehicle around and park so that they could contact the police.
The driver reportedly pulled his vehicle into the parking spot, but then crashed into the building. A person inside suffered a serious leg injury as a result.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that about 10,000 people die each year in motor vehicle crashes caused by drunk drivers. While each and every one of those deaths is a preventable tragedy, perhaps none are as difficult for families to accept as the loss of young children.
Three years ago, there were 1,233 traffic deaths among kids up to 14 years ago; 17 percent of them involved a driver impaired by alcohol, the CDC said.
How big is the problem? That same year, more than a million people were arrested for driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs. Many more drunk and drugged drivers were able to avoid detection by law enforcement – at least for now.
For many, it’s just a matter of time before they cause an auto crash, severe injuries or even deaths.
