BUTLER TWP — There are two ironies about people who have been convicted of driving drunk in Butler County and then forced to listen to speakers relate stories about how their lives were impacted by drunken drivers.

First, it's not unusual to have a small portion of the audience arrive drunk and be arrested.

Secondly, it's equally common to have a different portion of the audience embrace the speakers, who are otherwise strangers, as they leave the seminar.

Called a "victim impact panel," the three-hour presentation ranges from stomach-turning photographs of injury victims to heart-wrenching anecdotes told by a mother who buried her 19-year-old son.

"You just don't think about things like that when you are out, and you are drinking," said a 26-year-old Zelienople man, near tears, as he left the most recent panel Saturday.

The man said he learned how much alcohol affects him only when he was arrested leaving a golf outing in Cranberry Township. His blood alcohol level was at 0.2 percent, 2½ times higher than the state's legal limit.

The man, who has been convicted of driving under the influence, said he learned the impact drunken driving can have on the community only after hearing from the victims' first-hand accounts.

"And I'll tell all my friends, don't drink and drive," he said.

The victim impact panels, organized by the Butler chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, have been held in the county once a month since June 2006.

Typically, they're on a Saturday morning at the Succop Theater at Butler County Community College.

Moderator Traci Vetovich of MADD begins the program by reminding the audience to show respect during the presentation. For the speakers, she said, the chance to tell their story is therapeutic.

"If it changes the heart of just one person, it's all worthwhile for them," she said.

Yet, Vetovich said, the speakers recognize none of the audience members would have shown up if they had not been ordered to do so by a judge.

Generally, the audience is comprised of all the defendants convicted of first or second DUIs during recent sessions of Butler County DUI court.

At this past seminar on Saturday, all of the defendants from four court sessions were ordered to attend.

Of the 150 people expected, 139 showed up, much better than the average attendance rate of about 55 percent. Those who do not attend could face further punishment by the courts.

Participants are greeted by a $40 fee and a breath test by campus police. Last Saturday, no one failed the test.

But Patrick Massaro, director of campus police, said on average two to four participants per session test positive for alcohol usage and are arrested.

In addition to new charges, those people don't get credit for the attending, and they don't get their $40 back.

The presenters are different for each session. On Saturday, the group heard from four people, all of whom stressed they were not there to judge the audience and they don't oppose legal consumption of alcohol.

They simply urged audience members not to drive while intoxicated.

Dr. William Chung, a facial reconstruction surgeon from UPMC Presbyterian and a Butler County resident, shared photographs taken of a handful of the patients he has treated who were injured by drunken drivers.

Some photographs are so graphic they have in the past caused people to faint. And some are so devastatingly sad, the doctor tells the audience — specifically speaking of a 4-year-old girl whose face was mangled when the family's minivan was T-boned by a drunken driver — "If you are not moved and affected by this, God help you."

Another speaker Kim Peterson, 46, of Venango County told the audience what happened when a drunken driver hit her son's car in 2002.

Mark, 19, and a 16-year-old buddy named Eric died. Another teenage boy riding in Mark's car "didn't think it was so great to be a survivor," she said. The boy's emotional and physical scars triggered drug problems and suicide attempts.

The drunken driver responsible, Peterson said, still is serving a 5- to 12-year prison sentence.

"Don't think it is always going to be someone else," she told the crowd.

Allen McDougal of Cranberry Township told the group about how alcohol nearly destroyed his life and left him sleeping in ditches.

But, he encouraged the crowd to consider life changes: "My worst day today is better than my best day then. You, too, have choices."

Tara Pennington, 30, of Armstrong County told the group about her experience in 2005. A driver with a blood-alcohol level of 0.301 struck her car head on at 65 mph.

The collision left her with permanent pain and disfiguration, two internal injuries and 14 broken bones.

A 29-year-old woman who had been riding in Pennington's front passenger seat, identified in the seminar only as Tina, suffered a broken neck during the collision. After the crash, Tina slumped down and died with her head on Pennington's lap.

"As they took her out of my car, I could hear the firefighter say, "This one is DOA (dead on arrival)," Pennington told the crowd.

Pennington told the audience just before Saturday's panel, she received a letter from the state's parole board notifying her the drunken driver responsible for her injuries soon would be released from prison, having served his minimum sentence of 5 years.

Pennington, who has for years been speaking to groups about her experience, is preparing for a different audience in a few months.

"I've asked to meet with him, and he has agreed," she said. "I want to tell him my story."