Timothy Rose, 22, totaled his car in a drunk driving accident two weeks ago on Sept. 11.  Rose fell asleep at the wheel, drove over a storm ditch and crashed into a culvert, breaking his heels and pelvis.

Rose has written the following commentary as a letter to the editor, urging the public to not drink and drive:

It started off as a regular night of having fun with my friends. It was the typical casual hangout setting; youtube videos and Sportscenter in between a few bad movies. And of course, drinking.

Drinking is always a good time with your friends (as long as you're of age of course).  It's something that almost everybody does when they're trying to have a good time.  But that night I drank too much, and made what could turn out to be the worst decision of my life; I drove home.

Not only did I attempt to drive home, but instead of going the easy way, (I was literally only 5 - 10 minutes away) I decided to take the long way.  Sure enough I fell asleep at the wheel with my foot on the accelerator. My car sped up, jumped over an 18 foot drainage ditch and crashed into a cement culvert. After the car hit, it slowed down and finally came to a stop.

That's when I woke up in a daze; I literally felt like I was in a movie. I somehow had enough of a mind to grab my cell phone and wallet and proceeded to climb of the driver-side window and fell straight to the ground. I did an army crawl to the other side of the car, got my father on the phone, and passed out in agony (there was pain in my lower extremities that no amount of alcohol can ease) awaiting the arrival of my father.

When he got there I became just coherent enough to explain to him what had happened and to tell him over and over again how sorry I was to have put him through this. The rest is just a blur of police and EMTs, red and blue flashing lights and going in and out of consciousness. I woke up in the hospital later in the morning surrounded by my mother and father and about four doctors and nurses. They told me I was very lucky to be alive, oh, and that I had two broken heels, a shattered ankle, and a broken pelvis. TWO BROKEN HEELS — apparently the strongest bones in the body. Hmmm…OK.

Over the course of the next week I spent time with my immediate family, friends and other visitors, made friends with nurses, and watched a lot of television. I went through ups and downs in my own head. The thoughts I had about the accident kept me awake day and night. I tried to reassure myself that everything happens for a reason, everyone makes mistakes, and attempted to accept other people's advice and sympathy. The fact of the matter was I was shocked.  I thought, "This isn't real; how could this happen to me?" I was in denial. The more and more I thought about it, the more it sank in and eventually I had come to accept it. But I still cannot believe this happened.

Everybody thinks that what happened to me can't happen to them. "Oh yeah, I'll be fine to drive home, I do it all the time," or "It's just a minute away. No big deal." Truth is they are probably right. Unfortunately, accidents happen, and there is no way of telling who they will happen to or when they will occur, as I recently found out. I never thought of the ramifications before, but the situation is a lot more complicated than people think; especially the effect this has not only on you, but the people who are a part of your life. Not to mention sitting in a hospital bored out of your mind, thinking about all the possible scenarios day in and day out.

My parents were there to see me every day. I had visits from family: my brother, cousins, aunts and uncles. I was happy to see them at the time, but after they went home I was left wondering about them. Wondering how they felt, how scared they were when they first found out. My friends were seriously worried too. I felt so bad about putting everybody through this. But my parents, boy did I feel bad for them. How could I do this to them?

My father works construction, and he works his ass off to provide for our family. He is up at 5 a.m. to go to work. Let's not talk about the nights where he is on call and has to work all night, and still make it to work the next day. He spent hours with me at the hospital rather than going home to rest. But he still made it to work every morning because he couldn't afford to miss a day.

My mother came in to see me every morning, bringing me a coffee (although it was usually warm by the time I got it).  She left the house earlier than she had to, traveled 25 minutes out of her way, just to come see me for a mere 5 minutes, knowing she would be there later at night with my father. I can't even begin or pretend to know what it would be like to receive that phone call from your son at 3 a.m.; a drunken voice saying "Dad, I f***'d up. I crashed my car." There is still no way I can thank them enough, and no amount of apologies can undo what they had to go through.

I tried to stay strong throughout this whole ordeal, and believe me, I did a great job. With a football background and natural abilities, I was able to stay 'mentally-tough' and push myself to get those few 'extra yards,' if you will. I will admit, the medication, and the company of nurses and visitors helped a lot too. But I still had some serious injuries. I was in a great deal of pain, and it was very hard to sleep. The two days following the surgery to repair the ankle were the toughest, from a pain standpoint. There was non-stop throbbing pain, and no medicine was helping, I just had to tough it up.

There is a good chance that I'm not going to be able to run, or even walk the same again. That's the hardest thing to hear after being an athlete and playing a sport in some form nearly every season. Determination goes a hell of a long way and that is all I have to look forward to. But with the extent of the injuries, naturally there is going to be a long healing process. They say it will be at least 3 months before I can walk again. I can put absolutely no bearing weight on the ankle for 3 months. If I'm lucky, the heel and pelvis on the other leg with heal quicker and I may be able to go from a wheelchair to crutches after about two months. (I will be lucky to enjoy Christmas on a nice pair of aluminum crutches. Maybe I'll get some stickers in my stocking and some new pads to trick them out).

I have to learn how to live in this wheelchair. I can't stand up AT ALL. Everything I do must be done from a seated or lying position. Forget about all the complications that I had to worry about such as blood clots and bedsores; I can't even walk to a toilet to take a crap. So they sent me from the hospital to a rehab facility to learn how to do everything without putting weight on my feet; including getting from a wheelchair onto the toilet. I should be in for an interesting — sometimes amusing — but altogether frustrating recovery process.

Healing is going to be the easy part I think; battling the demons that are my own thoughts is going to be the hard part. I mentioned that I lost a ton of sleep thinking about the accident and other possible scenarios: God forbid I hit another car and killed somebody. Or what if I had injured family, including small children? The thoughts just didn't stop. What if I hit my head and got brain damage? What if I DIED? I was going through hell inside my own head. It got very, very emotional for me. I'm not going to try to be a tough guy; I'll admit I cried a lot from all of these thoughts. As a matter of fact I'm having a hard time holding back the tears right now.

Finally it became easier, and easier to cope. I accepted that what happened, happened and there is nothing that I can do about it now. I just need to remind myself of how lucky I am; how fortunate that nobody else was involved in the accident, and that I'm alive to tell other people about this, and, hopefully, one day look back and laugh.

One thing for sure is that I learned a very valuable lesson. I know that everyone thinks that crashing won't happen to them — as I thought — but it does. I was in no shape to drive that night, yet I did anyway and I am paying for that decision today.

A lot of you don't take the warnings that we hear every day seriously enough. They pass through our heads in one ear and out the other. Friends can tell you not to drive all they want, and some people listen, but a lot of people are too stubborn to do the right thing. Nobody seems to listen and unfortunately, this is how a lot of people have to learn their lesson.

I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to go down like that. Drunk driving is such an easy situation to avoid, yet it happens all the time. It's sad to think that it will likely happen to someone close to you — probably multiple times in your lifetime — and sometimes that person may not get as lucky as I was. But who knows, they might also get luckier. I would gladly get a DUI and not have had to be injured. But things happen and there is nothing we can do to change the past.

People: make the right decision. Go out and get drunk; get stupid and have a ton of fun, just don't drive. Drink somewhere where you're comfortable staying over, or get someone to be a designated driver. If worst comes to worst, call someone for a ride. Then you won't have to put your family through what mine unfortunately went through. You won't have the risk of dying, or ending up seriously injured, and as sure as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers started of the '10 season 2-0, you will have your sanity.

It comes down to you and nobody else.