Underage drinking is suspected to have played a major hand in the death of Baltimore teen, Michael Truluck over the weekend. The minor was riding in a car with his stepfather on Saturday when he suddenly felt the urge to vomit.
Truluck fell out of the vehicle after opening the car door while in motion, and was then struck by an oncoming vehicle. He died from his injuries at Franklin Square Hospital. He was only 13 years old.
Truluck’s mother, Kris Keys, claims that her son was intoxicated from allegedly drinking Four Loko, an alcoholic beverage it is believed he consumed while he was out with friends. Those with Truluck say he became sick twice before getting into the car.
Keys hopes her son’s death will be a lesson to all those who knew him and still think underage drinking is worth the risk. She is also speaking out against the neighborhood resident that Truluck’s friends say purchased the liquor.
Baltimore County Police are still waiting on toxicology reports to confirm whether the boy was drunk. Police also say that the driver of the Ford Explorer that struck Truluck after he fell will not face any charges.
“I’ve lost the only son I’m ever going to have because they wanted to party. And it’s sad, it’s just really sad. And I don’t want to have to see another family go through this,” said Keys to Baltimore’s CBS affiliate, WJZ. Truluck was an eighth grader at Parkville Middle School.
“Four Loko contains as much alcohol as four or five beers, but it is marketed as a single-serving beverage,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in an FTC release on their website.
The drink is made by Phusion Projects, a company based in Chicago, Ill. The company has been the center of some controversy in the last three years with its products. In the state of Washington, the drink led to legislation that forced leaders of the industry to reshape their products.
Reports from the Center for Disease Control on caffeinated alcoholic beverages (CABs) say that the drinks are “very popular among youth and are regularly consumed by 31 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds.” The CDC has also documented that in 2008 alone, there were nearly 190,000 emergency room patients under the legal drinking age being treated for injuries and conditions dealing with alcohol.
Phusion refuses to accept any wrong doing in spite of Truluck’s mother’s assertion. The company claims alcohol-caffeine combination is no longer part of the items sold on shelves intended for adults.
“On November 16, 2010, prior to the FDA’s letter, we voluntarily reformulated Four Loko by removing caffeine, guarana, or taurine,” said the company in response to reports on Truluck’s death. “We began producing the reformulated version of Four Loko on November 18, 2010. No shipments of our products containing caffeine from Phusion’s production facilities were made after November 17, 2010.”
The Federal Drug Administration first moved to put an end to alcoholic beverages with caffeine in 2010 after college students across the nation became ill from the drink. The caffeine is said to essentially “mask” the true level of alcohol in one’s system, leaving the consumer more intoxicated than can be accurately judged.
Whether the Truluck death is attributable to over indulgence in an alcoholic beverage enhanced with caffeine or not has yet to be determined. The loss of a fellow student, however, is nevertheless all too real for the students, friends, and family who now only have teddy bears, burning candles, cards, and balloons to mark the block of Harford Road where Michael Truluck’s life was apparently ended in senseless tragedy.
Parkville Middle School is now offering grief counseling for it students dealing with Truluck’s loss.
