Yesterday Gaither High School students got a lesson on how a Tampa DUI can affect your life from a young man how went through a DUI arrest in Florida. This morning another group of Tampa Bay high school students got an up close look at the consequences of drunk driving. Melissa Daddio addressed students at Indian Rocks Christian school Thursday morning. She was warning teens about the dangers of drinking and driving from first-hand experience.
Daddio was 19-years-old when she was drunk and got behind the wheel of a car. She wrecked her Hyundai in St. Petersburg after a night of partying, killing her boyfriend. She is preparing to be sentenced tomorrow for her Florida DUI arrest. Daddio is facing up to 15 years in prison. DUI penalties in Florida drunk driving cases are often very harsh especially when it is a felony DUI.
Before she goes into jail Daddio is trying to convince other Florida teenagers not to make the same mistake she did. Daddio narrated a video that was shown to the high schoolers. The mini-documentary had Daddio reliving one of the worst moments in her young life. The assembly was arranged by a group called Safe Teen Driver. Bruce Murakami founded the organization 11 years ago. He lost his wife and daughter to a speeding teenage driver in Tampa.
For Daddio, she will learn her punishment from the justice system tomorrow. Her plans of being a nurse and starting a family will be put on hold by her DUI prison sentence but the question is for how long? The young man who spoke at Gaither High yesterday spent nine months in jail following a sentence of more than 14 years for killing his brother in a drunk driving accident.
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