Hardy, meanwhile, would go on to plead guilty to the charge of criminally negligent homicide; a judge suspended a five-year prison sentence and ordered her to serve 60 days in the county jail and three years probation.
JR was taught from a young age about the dangers of drinking and driving. His killer, unfortunately, was not. Twenty minutes before the fatal crash, a friend of Hardy's posted on her Facebook wall, "One of these days you're going to kill someone driving drunk." Those haunting words will stay with us forever.
Parents - not peers - are the No. 1 influence on their teens' decisions about alcohol, including their decisions around riding with an impaired driver. parents need to tell children know it's never OK to get into a car with a driver who has been drinking.
Parents talking to their children is just the first step. You must also put those words into action by modeling positive behaviors. A MADD and Nationwide survey found that more than 82 percent of Texas parents surveyed have talked with their children about the dangers of riding with a drinking driver, but more than 1 in 4 parents admitted to riding with a drunken driver in the past year. Nearly 55 percent admitted to having a drink or two at dinner and then driving their children home in the past