Drunk driving changed local man's life

This holiday weekend FOX10 News wants to remind you how dangerous it is to drink and drive. We talked to one man who did, and now he says his life will never be the same.

"Even though I'm still living, my life is gone. I don't have a life anymore," said Danny Vargas.

Vargas spends every day at home with his parents and Boston Terriers. While Vargas loves being with them, there are other things he would love to be doing too. But he can't do anything he used to enjoy because he got behind the wheel after a night out drinking.

"I ran off the road and hit an Oak Tree head-on," said Vargas.

Vargas says the night started out at a bar with friends, "I was drinking pretty heavily and I was bulletproof then and I couldn't stop the fact that I was already drunk and I drank way too much to be behind the wheel of a vehicle. But I thought I was bulletproof and I couldn't be stopped nothing's going to happen to me."

But he was wrong. After his accident, Vargas spent three months in a coma. Then, after rehabilitation, doctors determined Vargas would never walk again.

"I'm restricted to a wheelchair and the accidents caused severe brain damage so I don't think like normal people, I don't understand like normal people do," said Vargas.

Vargas's accident happened three years ago, but every day he wakes up and is reminded of that dark morning.

"People don't pay attention to me like they did before. I don't have friends. And being my age, which is 29, and living this kind of life, it isn't pleasant; it's not something you want to do," said Vargas.

Vargas says his life will be fulfilled if he can stop just one person from getting behind the wheel drunk this July 4th weekend.

"Please don't think you can't be stopped because you can be stopped. Don't think for a second it won't happen to you because it will happen to you. It only takes one time, one time, and in the snap of your fingers, your life's gone."