Underage drinking led a teenager to plow his Jeep Wrangler full of five teenagers into a large tree during the 2005 Labor Day Weekend, instantly killing two 16-year-olds seated in the back seat. The three other teens in this September 5 one-car crash in Finksburg, Maryland were airlifted by helicopter to Baltimore's Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland. One was in a coma, with a blood alcohol content (BAC) exceeding the .08 legal limit. None of these teens wore a seat belt.

Zachary Ondrish had just begun his junior year at Westminster High School the previous week. He was a wrestler on the school's team and the second oldest of seven children. Loved by young and old alike, kids still gather and leave things for Zach at the crash site on his birthday and the anniversary of the crash.

"The three teens in our family were just devastated beyond belief," says Cathy Ondrish, Zach's mother. "I didn't know what to do with them. They already had fulltime jobs just trying to make sense of the world, and then this. For the first two years, we just lived day by day. I tried to talk to the teens, but they felt so hopeless. Their attitude was 'Why bother to do anything? It's all gone in an instant.'


"I don't know how I got through all of that, but for the grace of God," she says. "I felt completely overwhelmed and felt lots of burden on my shoulders. Dealing with the kids brought up stuff I hadn't ever dealt with myself." Two of her teenagers were suicidal, and finding adolescent grief counseling was especially hard.

Now a trained victim advocate for MADD, Cathy has learned that everyone deals with grief differently because of personalities and types of relationships with loved ones. "I can't tell someone I know how they feel, but I can help them through the process," she says. She also speaks to groups of parents and students, hoping to prevent further heartaches caused by drunk driving.

A seven-year veteran with the Social Security Administration at the time of Zach's crash, Cathy's job kept her going. "If I hadn't had to get up and go to work, and get my mind off it. . . I don't know how people do that who don't have a job." She has also used the time going to and from work to think about it all and deal with it herself. Her office colleagues, her friends and Zach's friends have been very supportive.

The 17-year-old driver of the Jeep, whose BAC measured .10 two-and-a-half hours after the crash, pleaded guilty to two counts of homicide by a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and also pleaded guilty to two counts of homicide by a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol. The man who bought beer for the five underage teens made $10 on the deal. He served five weekends in jail for contributing to the delinquency of minors.

New Jersey resident Keith Flem was the other teen killed in the crash. He was in Finksburg visiting Ryan Berger, 17. Best friends since kindergarten, they were like brothers. Ironically, the five boys in the Jeep stopped by to see if Ryan could go with them, but he said he had homework to do.