The Dangers of Drinking and Driving

On July 19, 2017 I had the pleasure of interviewing Nikki Johnson. Her story is very astonishing and she has overcome many obstacles over the past 20 years. I was very grateful that Nikki decided to share it with us.

At 20 Nikki was a junior attending Virginia Commonwealth University. Having loved art her whole life she decided to major in graphic design, this way she could be an artist while still making a decent living. The summer before Nikki’s junior year Princess Diana died in a drunk driving accident, and because of this Nikki decided to stop drinking. On the one day she made an exception, everything changed.
It was Nikki’s roommate 21st birthday and she wanted her two best friends to join her for a night of celebration. Nikki’s roommate worked at a bar downtown, and she convinced her coworkers to turn a blind eye to her underage friends. Throughout the night Nikki consumed a lot of alcohol, which had a large effect on her due to her period of abstinence and the diet she was on. At around 1:30AM Nikki stumbled to the bathroom and on her return fell down the stairs, highlighting her inebriation. The bartender gave her some water and told them to leave at 2:00AM. Unfortunately, with the alcohol in her system Nikki did not realize the dangers of driving and she stumbled out to her car to drive home. While she was supposed to drive home alone her two friends got into a fight with their boyfriends and they then begged her for a ride. Nikki agreed and they drove off.
They were then involved in a horrific accident, the car had a head on collision with a stationary object. The front passenger died immediately from an air bag breaking her neck, while the remaining two had extensive injuries with Nikki’s being the worst. The car was completely crushed and roof had to be removed in order to get Nikki and her roommate out. Nikki was in a coma for 3 months and doctor’s told her parents that she would not make it out alive. Despite the odds Nikki made it out of her coma. Doctor’s then told Nikki’s parents that she would be a vegetable for the rest of her life, and when that wasn’t true that she would never walk again. However, again and again Nikki fought the odds and regained her strength. While in the hospital Nikki had to undergo 13 extensive surgeries and rehabilitation. She had to learn everything all over again, from walking to talking, but in the end her hard work payed off.
While Nikki still has substantial brain damage, she has physical and mental impairments and she can’t remember the 5 years of her life between her junior year of high school and her junior year of college, she is doing amazing for someone who was told that they would not live. Today Nikki has still not given up her dreams of being and artist, and continues to paint and create new artwork. Nikki also uses her experience as a way to warn others about the dangers of drinking and driving, and the dangers of alcohol in general. It was a wonderful experience for me to be able to hear and learn from Nikki’s experience and I hope you felt the same way.