RALEIGH, N.C — A North Carolina mother and father are warning people about the dangers of drinking and driving as we head into the new year. This comes after losing their son to a drunk driver. 

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports 40% of deadly crashes between Christmas and New Year’s Eve involve drunk drivers.

For Mike Cummings, nothing is worth the pain he says he feels every time he and his wife Angela drive past the spot where their son died in a drunk driving crash.

“See the scars in the tree 17 years later,” Mike Cummings said.

His 19-year-old son Benjamin Cummings lost his life to a drunk driver in 2005.

The Cummings say Benjamin left a party where teenagers were drinking. They say he was the passenger in the car where a friend was driving drunk.

The family says the car was going 90 miles per hour, and lost control before hitting a tree.

“The trajectory, it put our whole family and our kids, it has forever changed and in the moment when you’re making that lasting impact [on] your family,” Angela Cummings said.

Benjamin Cummings, who loved fishing, had just graduated from Wakefield High School one month before he died.

The Cummings say the car their son was in split into three pieces.

His father says he’s never been able to look at crash scene photos because the memories alone are too painful.

Though the memories are still there, loved ones hope their son’s story will encourage people to think twice about drinking and driving over the holiday. That’s why they’re working so hard to spread the word with the help of different organizations.

Talk It Out N.C., the North Carolina initiative to stop underage drinking and encourage adults not to drink and drive, launched the "drunk goggles challenge" in early December. The goggles show teenagers how difficult it is to perform daily tasks while under the influence.

“If you’ve had anything to drink, don’t — don’t drive. They’re too many avenues, too many other ways to get around. The devastation that it causes to a family doesn’t matter how long it’s been," Michael Cummings said. "That scar is still there. It won’t go away."