ORANGE PARK, Fla. – The message has long been clear: Don’t drink and drive. But health experts say the warning goes further than most people think — and one local mother says she learned that lesson the hard way after her son was nearly killed.
“Any drink is too many drinks to get behind the wheel,” said Jenna Gonzalez, a trauma injury prevention registered nurse at HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital.
When talking about alcohol and driving, the conversation often centers on Blood Alcohol Content, or BAC. In Florida, the legal limit is .08. However, according to Jacksonville-based Musca Law, drivers can still be charged with DUI even if their BAC falls below that threshold.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 32 people die every day in the United States from drunk-driving crashes — one person every 44 minutes. In 2024, 11,904 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths.
“Previous years before 2023, you can see a steady increase in the incidents and fatalities as well as injuries,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez has treated many patients affected by drunk driving and knows that body weight, number of drinks consumed and other factors affect people differently. Still, she says the message remains the same.
“Even if that grid, or you did the, ‘Oh I weigh 120 pounds. I had two drinks in an hour. That says I’m ok.’ It’s not worth getting behind the wheel,” Gonzalez said. “There are still signs of impairment that you will feel before you reach the legal limit of driving.”
For Jessica Cook, those aren’t just statistics — they’re her family’s reality.
In November 2025, her son Jonah — who was 17 at the time — was a passenger catching a ride home from a party when the impaired driver got into an accident. Jonah was ejected from the vehicle. He suffered broken bones and life-altering injuries.
“It was horrible. A lot of the damage was to Jonah’s face and he was unrecognizable,” Cook said. “There was a time that we prepared his brothers and ourselves that we weren’t going to have him anymore.”
Day by day, with small progress at a time, doctors say Jonah made a miraculous recovery. He spent months at multiple hospitals and missed his entire senior year — but still managed to walk across the stage at graduation.
Cook says she speaks out passionately because she never wants another family to go through what hers did.
“Don’t get in a vehicle with your friends if they’ve been drinking. Make sure that you have a designated driver if you go somewhere,” Cook said. “Make sure your designated driver commits and stays sober, and if they don’t, we have Uber now, Lyft, all these different services.”
A friend or family member is always just a phone call or text away — and that call could save a life.
The NHTSA offers these tips for staying safe:
- Plan your safe ride home before the party starts. Choose a non-drinking friend as a designated driver.
- If someone you know has been drinking, do not let that person get behind the wheel. Take their keys and help them arrange a sober ride home.
- If you drink, do not drive for any reason. Call a taxi, a ride-hailing service or a sober friend.
- If you are hosting a party where alcohol will be served, make sure all guests leave with a sober driver.
- Always wear your seat belt — it is your best defense against impaired drivers.