A fiery, head-on crash that killed three people on County Road 350 South on March 21, 1999, and the events that led up to the alcohol-related tragedy will be part of an ABC News 20/20 program tonight.

In a first-segment story that focuses on the problem of bartenders serving intoxicated customers, tonight's show will include an interview with Dan and Margie Towery of Lafayette, whose daughter, Sarah, was killed, along with her boyfriend, Chip Smith, and the intoxicated driver who caused the crash.

"I think probably 90 percent of it out there will fall on deaf ears -- it's always the other guy," said Dan Towery, who along with his wife spent the entire day of Feb. 10 with 20/20 reporter John Quinones, a producer and camera crew to film their portion of the segment.

Towery hopes the national publicity will help in his effort to increase awareness and promote legislation that fights drunken driving.

"Hopefully we can work with authorities and develop some strategies, implement technology and improve counseling," he said. "If we can find just a few people out there interested in saving one of their own loved ones, it'll be worth it."

Towery said he thinks a bartender accused of serving 10 mixed drinks to Jeffrey Pedone Trout in 21/2 hours shortly before the crash is partly to blame for the fatalities. Trout had a blood-alcohol content of .27 percent -- nearly three times the legal limit for driving in Indiana -- at the time of the crash. He had several prior drunken driving convictions and did not have a valid license.

James W. Irwin, a bartender at the former Mirage tavern in Lafayette, faces trial April 11 on a criminal charge of serving an intoxicated customer.

Partly as a result of the Towerys' lobbying efforts, the Indiana General Assembly approved legislation that requires the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission to revoke the license of a server who is convicted of serving alcohol to an intoxicated customer.

State Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, who sponsored the bartender law, along with other related measures that didn't survive the short legislative session, said the Towerys have become effective spokesmen for drunken driving reform.

"They are because they speak with logic and with intelligence and with facts and with firsthand experience," Alting said.

"They're not looking at things that are warm and fuzzy and that get them votes, because they're not politicians."

He said the 20/20 segment should help the cause.

"Obviously, the more public awareness we have about it, the more that the Legislature can do that will be effective."

As part of the 20/20 segment, the program uses hidden cameras to illustrate some bartenders serve patrons who are obviously intoxicated.

Along with the interview with the Towerys, Dan Towery said, 20/20 likely will air a snippet of the Mirage's internal surveillance video, which allegedly shows Trout being served glass after glass of Capt. Morgan's Spiced Rum and Coca-Cola.

Towery said Quinones also narrated part of the story at the site of the crash on County Road 350 South, and the film crew shot video outside the Mirage and at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, where Irwin will be tried.

Whether the program has any impact locally, Towery said, he and his wife's reform efforts will continue.

Next up: an organizational meeting of a Greater Lafayette chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, scheduled for April 11.

Towery, still grieving over the loss of his 24-year-old daughter, who would have graduated this spring from the University of Illinois-Springfield, said the effort sustains him.

"I'd give anything if I wasn't doing this," he said.

To tune in