[ music playing ] >> i'm cheryl jennings. our show today focuses on col consumption and the deadly dangers of drinking too much. according to a report from the world health organization, 2012 saw 3 million alcohol of related deaths around the globe. thousands of americans die every year from a variety of diseases and accidents and crimes linked to alcohol. too much alcohol negatively affects more than our body, behavior and relationships, it also damages the lives of the people around us. a young marine was killed by a drunk driver. andrew silva just returned from

afghanistan only to lose his life in fremont. we saw this report in the days following the tragedy. >> reporter: the emotion is overflowing in this fremont bank parking lot as people remember andrew silva. he was thrown from his motorcycle and died instantly tuesday night. investigators believe alexander john was drinking and driving. he was charged with murder, vehicular man swlauts gross negligence and hit-and-run. >> i hope that guy gets the justice andrew deserves. >> reporter: court records reveal more about the suspects. it turns out john was convicted in minnesota for drunk driving. in an affidavit, he admits to having whiskey in fremont around 10:00 p.m. he drove around 2 miles at mojos. he had three more shots of whiskey. by the time a friend arrived at midnight, he was bridge represent and drunk. she told him not to drive and

called his roommate to come get him. the suspect ignored her and drove. 15 minutes later, police say he crashed into andrew silva. >> it shows an act of negligence. i personally don't drink and drive, i think anyone should not only think about their safety but the safety of others. >> reporter: knowing more about the friend's accused killer isn't helping, her wife was here. they have a lot to look forward to andrew silva planned to finish college this spring and hopes to get a job in law enforcement. if fremont, abc 7 news. >> and andrew silva's widow, julie silva, is with me in the studio. it's not easy looking at that story, i know. >> no, it isn't. >> i know we have been talking about how hard it is to talk about andrew at this point but he was an amazing pan, so tell us a little about him. >> oh, he was the best father, the best brother, to three

younger brothers and he loved his parents so much, he wanted to provide for our family. he took care of me and my son noah all the time. anything that we wanted, he would take care of us while he was deployed. >> you were planning to buy a house together? >> yeah, we were. >> i know it's really hard for you to talk about this. but he came back from afghanistan. you guys went to high school together. >> yeah. >> he joined the marines practically right out of high school? >> he did. >> so he really wanted to serve his country. >> he did. >> so he was close to home the night this accident happened. where was he going? >> he was headed to my parents' house. my brother who served. my brother whofgs stationed in japan finally came home after several years and he and andrew wanted to visit him while he was home. however, he stayed back that night to spend some time with his brothers because it was also their first time being

altogether and after a year. >> then you heard about the accident or he didn't come home, so you were wondering where he was? >> yeah. >> that night we waited for him. he never arrived. he called me about 12:53 a.m. and when i got off the phone with him, i estimated in my head the route he takes the route he takes is about 7 miles long, which is approximately 20 minutes. so i estimated that he should be there no linger than 1:30 a.m. however, he never made it. when he didn't come home, i decided to go home, back to his parents' house. as i was driving, i saw police lights and the road was blocked off, which in the route he usually takes. >> you couldn't imagine he could be involved if that. >> no, i didn't want to believe it. i had a feeling, because he is a man of his word. so if he says he's coming. he's going to come. he's going to come. >> i can't imagine how you dealt with that. >> i was devastated and

terrified. >> how do you pick yourself up from that? >> family support? >> yes, a big support system. looking at my son every day, i know i have to be strong for him. i have to be advantage for my family, his family. >> you have done something that's remarkable because you want to keep his memory alive. a memorial fund, tell us about that. >> i didn't set up the memorial fund. fremont bank was generous enough to set up a memorial fund for us, which we turned into my son noah's college fund. >> you have a page set up on facebook? >> we have a facebook page we dedicated to andrew. we also want to focus not only on andrew but at veterans that died in combat and service and we want to advocate against drunk driving. >> so your advice for people who might the about drinking and driving. >> i would say to be responsible, that the risk of drinking and driving is not worth i. to think about not only

yourself and your safety, but others and how it can affect the family, leak us, if a sense. >> forever. >> forever. >> and the facebook page, we'll put the banner on the screen to let people know about what you are doing. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. thank you. >> and we have to take a break we are really appreciate julie's story. we're going to hear from a local police department about the close connection between alcohol and crime. so stay with us. we'll be right back.

. >> welcome back to "beyond the headlines" drunk driving continues to eight i blig issue across the country. the fbi reported 1.2005 million driving under the influence of arrests in the united states. an officer shared useful insight

recently about drinking has been and talked with our producer. >> buzz driving is drunk driving. when somebody has at least one drink, their systems are not the way they're supposed to be. so who we vemd if you have at least one drink, have some other plans to get home. either get a driver, get public transportation, something else. >> always good advice, joining seems to me officer eric oliver with the regulatory unit that oversees alcoholic beverage control. can i do one drink, two drinks? what is the legal limit? >> the legal limit is .08. anything greater than that, you are considered driving under the influence. >> it's different for different people. >> absolutely t. chart you see sometimes very misleading. because it's a lot of variables. it depends on how much you had to eat and just your tolerance for alcohol in general.

>> somebody my sides, one drink would affect me. are you a big man, you might be able to have more? >> it depends on, like i say before, what i've had to eat that day. >> that's true. all right. so we have heard this before, but how much does alcohol climb? >> i don't have a stat that i can just sit out. but i can tell you this, that most of our calls for service ar alcohol related. in one way or another. >> like domestic lie vince, for example? >> domestic violence is definitely one of the calls we get that are alcohol related. people that commit domestic violence after drinking alcohol is usually something that was already there and alcohol abuse is an excuse. it's not really. it's something that it doesn't make you lose control, but they use it as an excuse.

>> exactly. i am sure you have seen many in your years with the department. one of the things you probably have a concern, we talk about domestic violence. how about sexual assault. women that like to have a cocktail, they meet somebody in a bar, that puts themselves at risk? >> once again, it definitely affects your judgment. it affects the judgment of the person, the female. it also affects the person that's offering her to drink. so a lot of times you'll do things that you normally wouldn't do if you weren't drinking. and you have regrets. >> and you also have the problem, people spikeing drinks. >> absolutely. >> all of a sudden she drinks and it hits her like two or three drinks an she passes out. you see a lot of that going on? >> yes, we did. >> for celebration and i know you have seen this before, you have a campaign for people who fire their guns into the air when they want to celebrate

something. >> yes. we had a campaign this year. we put preventative information on the counters of liquor stores in the windows and basically on the flyer that we had, uc davis conducted a study from march of 28 to february of 2009 and they found that 317 people were struck by stray bullets. of that 317, 20% died from nooer their injuries. >> oh my goodness. we seen people get out of control with celebration and setting fires and trashing vehicles. how can we keep ourselves safe when you have sporting events and that sort of thing? >> well, the first thing is being responsible. if you go through a sporting event, one thing that you should always do, make sure you follow it sharp. in a lot of these events, you

will have a, it's a security number that you can have. you can pre-program that in your phone. walk around in groups of twos. if you see someone acting bridge rent or being threatened to someone else, report it to skoort. >> or walk away. >> or walk away, absolutely. >> officer, thank you so much for all your advice. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we have to take another short break. shai stay with us. we will talk about the impact of drinking too much alcohol on our families and our communities in families and our communities in you wish your dog could fight off fleas and ticks. but since he can't... you rely on frontline plus. because frontline plus unleashes a deadly killing force to kill fleas and ticks, plus flea eggs and larvae, preventing a new infestation. its protection lasts a full 30 days. no wonder frontline plus is the #1 choice of vets for their pets and yours. after all, your dog is a lover not a fighter.

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welcome back to "beyond the headlines" in 2006, the city of richmond held a ban. they filed this report in october of last year. >> reporter: billboards like the one are set to glorify drinking. when young kids see it over and over again, council peb jim rogers says it stays with them for life. >> freedom of speech does not include gram rising a product. it addicts kids. >> reporter: rogers is behind the ordinance to ban alcohol bill boards within 1,000 feet of richmond schools. less than a sixth of a mile. post-people say bank these billboards won't stop the problems many young people in

richmond face today. >> i this i the parents have a lot to do with it. also, instructing the skids not the right way to go. >> it's not the boys they see the first thing in the morning. it's the parents if there is one there. >> reporter: these people say the special speech is protected by the first amendment. still the federal courts have concluded some advertisements may be regulated. rogers argues there are studies that prove that these messages have an impact on teens. >> kids who see billboards start drinking young, kids who drink at 15 are five times more likely to become problem drinkers than at 21. it's a serious issue. >> reporter: is it passes, richmond will follow if oakland's footsteps which passed a similar measure 15 years ago. >> we are in competition with tv and on the internet. so therefore, i think it's the right thing to do, the messaging on our streets has to be a positive one as a community. rovmt still, oak never conducted a study to see if the ban has

been effective. if aimed are, le anne melendez, abc 7 news. >> last year they banned alcohol within a thousand feet of schools and other areas of rim and kids that are formally present. in studio with me to talk about the meant am and psychological effects of alcohol, psychologist sally groeder. you wanted me to start with, you are the nfl treating commission for substance abuse which is very timely for us to be talking about the right now. tell me how you are helping, what that involves. >> well, when a player gets if trouble with either alcohol or a substance, marijuana, something else that is banned, then they are required to be evaluated and by a treating clinician bhiefl. we see the they need ongoing care and try to give them the

best support they need so they can get on the right ood. >> you said you have something called horse sensing. how does that help patients? >> i take people out with a horse. we use the horse as an extra therapist. through working with the body the horse and the person, i teach them how to handle themselves and relax. so they don't need alcohol and drugs to take the edge off. so i help them with depression, anxiety, self esteem and things like that with horses. >> this is work or all ages, couldn't it? >> it's wonderful for adults and adolescents. i love working with teenagers and also veterans and other people. >> tell me how col affects young people as they grow up, cognitively. >> just like in the short piece we saw the younger a person starts drinking or using drugs, it really gets into their brain

development, so there is a flurry of developmental processes from about 12 to 14. it's like a second period of growth, after the one at 18 months. and if a child is already drinking or using drugs, it literally hard wires tear brain into more addictive patterns, the earlier that they start. so if they're drinking or using drugs on a regular basis, that's going to make it much harder for them to have room to develop other more healthy skills and patterns. it makes it harder to go back on addiction once they formed that early pattern. so it's not a good thing. >> it changes people's lifestyle within they become addicted. what do you see? >> well, it starts off slowly. so at first, whether you at an ad less sent or an adult, you are drinking to take the edge off or to mix with your peers, your friends. what happens is it takes up more

and more time and room in your life and so that edges out, necessarily, the healthier activities that you have in your life. the relationships, work, recreational activities, other interests that you have so pretty soon if someone is regularly taking substances, it kind of occludes everything else that's positive and at the very end, you know, when someone finally hits their bottom, we hope they do, then they see where they've ended up. they have to kind of make the climb back, if they're lucky enough to get there. >> i know you have provided a lot of resources throughout the day. we will put those on the screens him you know how to contact those organizations. >> thank you. we appreciate it. >> we do have to. >> hold on a second. we have to take a quick break. when we come back, we will talk about the physical health problems connected with alcohol and possible treatment. stay with

we're just absolutely shocked, and tear my saddened. >> remembering an east bay father of three, killed bay hit-and-run driver in oakland. his friends tonight making a plea for justice. i'm katie marzullo. we begin with developing news. the search for a hit-and-run driver, the driver slammed into a car driven by wesly burton who died at the escape. he was a husband, father, and worked at kpsa public