Coors not to blame for drunk driving death

A woman in Nevada is claiming that Coors Brewing Company is responsible for her 19-year-old son’s death in a car accident two years ago.

Ryan Pisco allegedly drank Coors beer the night of the accident, and then drove his girlfriend’s car 90 miles per hour into a a light pole.

Now Pisco’s mother, Jodie, is suing the brewing company for promoting underage drinking through advertisements.

And she hasn’t stopped there. Jodie Pisco also is suing her son’s girlfriend for not stopping him from getting in the car, and she is suing the girlfriend’s mother for buying the car in the first place.

There comes a point when someone has to draw the line.

The tragedy of Ryan Pisco’s death surely was due to the lack of responsibility on someone’s part, but Jodie Pisco seems to be forgetting who that someone was — her son.

When a person turns 18 years old, he or she is considered an adult and therefore responsible for his or her actions. It is seen in the courts when 18-year-old criminals are charged just like 50-year-olds. Jodie Pisco is attempting to point fingers in the wrong directions.

It is unfortunate that Ryan Pisco made a choice to drink and drive, and even more unfortunate that it cost him his life. But unless a Coors representative was at the party forcing him to drink the product, the brewing company has done nothing wrong. If every beer company was sued for every death by driving drunk — which amounts to more than 17,000 a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — every brand would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.

Jodie Pisco claims that Coors targets underage drinkers in its advertising. The reality is, most all products nowadays — whether they are alcoholic beverages or clothing — are aimed at the young and beautiful of this generation. Yet young and beautiful does not mean under the legal drinking age. Coors hasn’t advertised a 10-year-old sipping a can of brew — it only is keeping up with the competitive standards of the current marketing world.

The most ridiculous claim, however, is that Ryan Pisco’s girlfriend and her mother should be to blame for his actions. A girlfriend is not a babysitter, and the owner of a car does not have a hidden remote control to guide it in a deadly direction. Ryan Pisco made a choice that nobody else could make, and, unfortunately, he paid the consequences. It is sad that he has to become another negative drunk driving statistic, but as a legal adult, he is the only one responsible.

Jodie Pisco’s blame on others perhaps stems from the grief and disappointment of her son’s death, and rightfully so, as the loss of a loved one has traumatic effects on anyone’s life. Yet by pointing fingers in the wrong direction, she is showing that drinking and driving is done at the hand of the alcoholic industry and not by the person who sits behind the wheel. Let Ryan Pisco’s irresponsibility set an example for the next person who thinks about drinking and driving — hopefully he or she will.