Woman jailed in DUI crash addresses Amethyst Initiative

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Post a comment | E-mail this story | Print

Jessica Rasdall is serving a four-year prison term for DUI manslaughter. The victim was her best friend, Laura Gorman.

(Bay News 9)--When 18-year-old Jessica Rasdall got behind the wheel after drinking one night in 2005, she ending up paying a very high price.

Today Rasdall is serving four years in prison for DUI manslaughter from the death of her best friend Laura Gorman. Rasdall was driving on I-275 in St. Petersburg, and Gorman was her passenger. Both girls were 18.

"It was the absolute worst moment," Rasdall said. "I started screaming and crying at the top of my lungs like no ..no...no...I killed my best friend. Laura is gone. I completely lost everything. I just remember the tears running down my face," she said.

Rasdall said that one night of underage drinking caused her to ruin her life and bury her best friend.

More Information

"Laura paid the ultimate price. I'm serving four years in prison and every day for the rest of my life I'm going to wake up and know that I killed my best friend for one night. There's nothing that justifies that," she said.

Rasdall said she has been keeping her eye on the Amethyst Initiative, which calls for a discussion on lowering the national drinking age from 21 to 18, through newspaper articles she reads in prison.

"My heart just dropped. From someone who threw their life away at 18 because of alcohol, that article just shattered me in a million pieces," she said.

Eckerd College President Donald Eastman is one of 100 college presidents who supports the initiative.

E-Mail The Reporters

This story is a joint report between BayNews9.com executive producer Joe Wisinski and Bay News 9 TV reporter Emily Maza.
E-mail Joe Wisinski
E-mail Emily Maza

"It doesn't have to be 18, but it gives us an opportunity to enter into conversations in a meaningful way that we can't enter into now...all we can say is no," he said.

Eastman said the Amethyst Initiative has generated some possible fixes to the underage drinking problem, such as creating a formal designated driver program and allowing 19-year-olds who have a high school diploma to be legally allowed to drink.

But Rasdall said her personal opinion of lowering the national drinking age is that it could have a deadly outcome.

"Waking up every morning because Laura is never coming back kills me," she said.

Begin SlideShow
rasdellcar.jpg
End SlideShow