Driver looks back on tipsy-turvy low point

Published in Long Beach City College's Viking newspaper in 2007.

Alone, dazed, drunk, the neighbors cautiously creeping closer, the mess, the crash, Long Beach Police, fire truck, tow truck, ambulance, grocery store, the blood spilling out of his mouth and there, in the clamored parking lot, stood LBCC drafting student Kelly Armstrong, taking it all in and realizing his ignorant mistake.
"I was trashed and shouldn't have been driving," Armstrong said about his DUI arrest in 2000. "I received two charges that night, one for driving drunk and one for driving drunk while only 16 years old."
Now 22, Armstrong said the Summer before senior year was one big party and one party in particular led him down this path.
"There was a keg and I drove my friend to this party in my recently acquired 1977 Chevy Camero," Armstrong said. "To this date it was probably the craziest party I've been to. The beer was flowing, I remember falling into a pool and when the keg ran out, we decided to leave."
About 12:30 a.m., Armstrong and his friend ditched the party and decided to grab some food.
"I remember thinking I was fine to drive, but I also didn't want to be that guy who said he couldn't drive because he was drunk," Armstrong said. "I was trying to impress my friends, I was trying to be cool."
After successfully performing a 180-degree burnout, exiting a Wendy's drive-through and nearly missing parked cars, Armstrong began experimenting with skids and peel-outs in water patches throughout a shopping center parking lot.
"We were having fun, talking, eating French fries and I started to go faster," Armstrong said. "It was like I couldn't take my foot off the gas and then I lost control of a skid and crashed into a pillar of a Bristol Farms grocery store. We hit hard and I smashed my face against the steering wheel. I remember my friend freaking out, then running away. I couldn't move the car and I couldn't get the keys out."
Armstrong failed the sobriety tests and was taken to the hospital.
"At the hospital, the cops handcuffed me to the bed while a doctor checked the cut in my mouth. Afterward, at the police station, they took a mug shot and finger-printed me, then they threw me in a drunk-tank until my mom picked me up three hours later. She was furious and whacked me in the head."
Armstrong said he was forced to pay roughly $1,000 and complete 40 hours of community service. Also, his license was suspended for a year and 2 points marked his driving record.
According to Long Beach Police statistics, DUI arrests slowly climbed from 684 arrests in 2004 to 863 arrests in 2006. Also in 2006, 319 pedestrians were hit by drunk drivers, 233 injury hit-and-runs occurred and 193 bicycles were struck.
Lt. Julie Prior of LBCC Police said, "The district has not had any issues with drunk driving in the campus community."
Armstrong is soberly driving his rebuilt Camero again and said he's learned from his mistakes.
"I had to fix the car," Armstrong said. "I felt like I had to redeem myself."