Deadly Decisions: Drunk Driving Increasing in Central Illinois

PEORIA- While you were watching the Super Bowl Sunday night, five people died in a crash involving alcohol.

Drunk drivers kill almost 30 people in the United States every day.
That's one death every 48 minutes.

If the statistics don't shock you, the fact that people continue to drive drunk probably should.
DUIs and drunk driving fatalities are up in central Illinois.

We're finding out just how much one deadly decision can affect your entire life.

A Friday night.
Farmington Road in Peoria.

Sergeant Tony Halsey knows it well.
He's one of five troopers on DUI patrol for the weekend.

"People like to take chances," Sgt. Halsey explains.

DUI arrests in our area jumped from 2011 to 2012.
In the first three weeks of January, troopers arrested 23 drivers for driving under the influence.
We went along for an exclusive DUI patrol.
Troopers nabbed 4 drunk drivers that night.
They say 2013 is on track to see even more drunk driving

"They take that chance and think, I'll be fine, I'm just going down the street to a few places, or I'm only gonna have a couple," Sgt. Halsey says.

It can happen to anyone and the decision can be deadly.
Sergeant Halsey remembers one incident all too well.

"The two young ladies were at "Spider Hill", he explains. "They got kicked out from security up there. While they were leaving, attempting to get pulled over by a Peoria County Sheriff's Deputy and the vehicle took off at a high rate of speed."

One-hundred and three miles an hour.

"I  was scared, I didn't know what to do," explains Jamie Duhs-McBride.

Duhs-McBride was driving the car that night in October of 2009.

"At that time in my life, I thought I was a good drunk driver. I really did. I thought I was good at it, she says. "My biggest memory from that night is leaving the parking lot and just laughing to myself. Like, this is not a good idea. Ashlyn says to me, it's ok, I trust you with my life."

Duhs-McBride was eighteen.
Her best friend, Ashlyn, the passenger.

"When I woke up, I kept trying to call Ashlyn, I kept trying to find her, I didn't know anything had happened," says Duhs-McBride.

Jamie had a blood alcohol level of .213, nearly three times the legal limit, when her car crashed into a guard rail.
She was in a coma from a week and a half.
Ashlyn died four days after the wreck.

"They kept pounding it in my head. This was a crime, not an accident. Everything in my wanted to scream, of course, of course this was an accident. I never meant to do this. But before I left home that night, I knew I was gonna be drinking, I knew I was the one driving home," Duhs-McBride explains.

A judge sentenced Jamie to six months in jail.
Three years probation, 200 community service hours and 75 alcohol rehab classes.
Ashlyn left behind a three year old daughter, sentenced to a life without her mom.

"I just dread the say that I have to explain what I did to her," says Duhs-McBride. "I have no excuses for why I made that choice."

One choice.
A deadly decision.
That has forever altered so many lives.

"I don't know why he decided to take her and not me." Duhs-McBride explains. "The old Jamie died with Ashlyn that night. I'm no longer the same person I was. I never will be. I was that person with her. I can never be that person again."

Sergeant Tony Halsey was there on the scene that night.
And it's why he's out on patrol every night, hoping to keep drunk drivers off of the roads, hoping to save central Illinois families from a world of pain.

"One death is one too many," Sgt. Halsey adds.

Jamie's accident was three years ago.
It's still affecting her life every day.