Instead of being the first in his family to graduate, Mark Sterner was the first to go to prison, the public speaker said during his hour-long presentation “DUI: A Powerful Lesson” in the Culp Center Auditorium Tuesday night.
In a matter-of-fact tone, Sterner told the audience of nearly 100 students how his drinking and driving resulted in the deaths of his three best friends during a Spring Break trip to Sanibel Island, Fla.
“Every day for the rest of my life, I’m punished with my memories,” Sterner said. “Would I trade my life for my friends? In a heartbeat.”
During the first half hour, Sterner played a video filmed the night of the accident that showed the five friends drinking heavily before heading out to nightclubs. Sterner identified the friends as Aaron, 23, Pete, 22, Jim, 23, and Darren, 21, but would not release last names or the date the accident occurred.
Sterner, who said the group had used designated drivers for five of the six days of the trip, was chosen to drive on the last night because his friends said he was “the least drunk of the bunch.”
The resulting accident killed Jim, Aaron and Pete, and left Sterner critically injured. Darren survived the crash with only minor injuries, but refuses contact with Sterner. Sterner, a former accounting and marketing double major, was convicted of three second-degree felonies of manslaughter.
After the video, Sterner returned to the tearful audience in an orange, prison-issue jump suit, explaining that he served three years in a maximum-security prison in Florida and remains on parole until Nov. 16, 2010.
For the remainder of the program, Sterner told students about the “nightmare” his life has become since the accident, and encouraged students to forego drinking and driving. “What was supposed to be our last night of fun our senior year turned out to be the last night of fun my friends ever had,” he said.
For the students in the audience, the topic was nothing new, though some said Sterner’s speech was a strong reminder of the consequences of drinking and driving. “It really hits home,” said ETSU sophomore Megan Parker. “Pretty much everyone you know has done it.”
But one campus organization hopes to change that.
The recently formed Bucs Against Drunk Driving, or BADD, will address drug and alcohol related problems affecting college students, including underage consumption, binge drinking, date rape and assault, said Lacie Tullock, president of BADD.
BADD is a chapter of the national organization University Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who works with university and off-campus communities to find solutions to drug and alcohol-related issues.
For Tullock, the new organization is a natural progression. “I’m involved in so many organizations on campus,” she said. “Because of that, I care a lot about what happens to the students here. I just want to help stop these problems, because I care about this school.

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