December 30, 2024 • 14 mins
Prioritizing Safety And Ways To Avoid Drunk And Impaired Driving
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Starcares, a weekly program that delves into the
issues that impact you and your family. This program is
a public affairs feature of this radio station. Now here's
your host, Michael Leach.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Drunk driving deaths have increased thirty three percent since twenty nineteen,
and December is one of the most dangerous months for
impaired driving crashes. As the holiday season continues and kicks
into high gear, Mothers Against Drunk Driving MAD, they're reminding
us to prioritize safety. Let's talk about it. My guest
(00:34):
today is MAD Advocate Erica Lynn Erica, thank you for
joining me today and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Thank you for having me today. I really appreciate you
putting this important message about safety and prevention.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Absolutely tell us a bit about Mothers Against Drunk Driving
MAD organization, How and why did it come into existence?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I came into existence in the nineteen eighties when a
mother had lost a child to a drunk driving crash,
and she took it upon herself start an organization to
help create awareness and education and also to support millions
of victims that we have at MATT I being one
of them. I lost both of my parents at the
hands of a drunk driver on October twenty eighth, twenty sixteen,
(01:16):
which also happened to be my birthday. You know, MATT
is a fantastic organization that has many pillars to it,
you know, working with prevention and education, working with our
law enforcement partners to keep our roads safe, working with
our legislators to get differ laws and penalties for people
that have offended and caused fatalities and maimed innocent people,
(01:39):
And of course the care and support that is needed
for all victims of these one hundred percent preventable crimes.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
My sincere condolences to you and your lass and all
of the people who may be listening who've been impacted
by this horrible tragedy. According to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, junk driving claimed four seven hundred and fifteen
lives during the December months between twenty eighteen and twenty
twenty two, and in twenty twenty two, twelve hundred and
(02:07):
ten people died in alcohol related crashes in December alone.
Why do you believe that there's an increase in impaired
driving crashes when people know of the horrific outcomes.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I'm not sure how much they do take into account
that when they get behind a four thousand pounds weapon,
that they can kill a name minutcent people. You know,
the color of mad is red, and every time I
wear that color red, I think about all the innocent
people whose lives have been taken, whose blood has been
spilt that is one hundred percent preventable. And you're right,
(02:44):
this time of year, between the holidays, between Christmas, Tonica
and New Years and all of the other holidays, people
are on the roadways, more people are going to parties.
They're not making a plan ahead of time thinking about
the consequences that can happen to get behind a wheel impaired.
So with more people on our roadways, with weather patterns
(03:08):
being more dangerous, and with more people going to parties,
it's essential, It's really essential that people make a plan
ahead of times. I think the hardest part being a
victim of this crime is that my parents and every
other victims loved one should be here with us today.
That is something that is so not easily forgotten, and
(03:30):
it's probably the hardest part around the holidays for us
is that they should be around our table. They should
be with us for birthdays and for celebrations and for graduations,
baptisms and everything else that life is being celebrated, and
yet their lives are stolen from them because somebody made
a bad decision to get behind a wheel impaired. And
(03:52):
in today's world, there's no reason for this. We have
the tools to stop this. Take a pledge to never
drive and pair, plan ahead and decide how you will
arrive home, whether that's choosing a ride share, designating a
sober driver, or using public transportation. And if you must drive,
be divillagent. Sober designated drivers should be extra alert on
(04:15):
the roads as more impaired drivers will be there behind
the wheel. Nobody's saying don't enjoy yourself, don't have a
few drinks, but make a plan ahead so that everyone
in your family will be around your table this holiday season.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Really, in paired driving has become a national public health crisis.
It doesn't just include drinking. There's drugging and other distractions,
especially now with the increase of phone use, driving, texting,
and video chatting. Let's talk about some of these other distractions.
Because I think that people are like, well, I wasn't drunk,
I'm not drunk. Let me just look at this text message.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. I mean, distracted driving is a
big problem on our roadways. You have the added injury
of cannabis use. There is oftentimes both drug and alcohol use.
In the case of the woman who killed my parent,
she drank a bottle of Jack Daniels before leaving her house,
and I might add it was at eleven o'clock in
(05:11):
the morning on a Friday, and she went to a
bar where she met a friend and had four more drinks,
two Vodkas and two buybecks, and she proceeded to stumble
out of the bar, get in the car, and drive
sixty five miles on a residential road where she hit
my parents dead on and threw them sixty feet into
a wooded area. And the really really sad part of
(05:34):
this she was on her way to pick up her three,
five and seven year old children. And I am sure
that my parents blocked that death from their children, because
she would have killed her own children that day. Not
only alcohol, but she had cannabis in her system, and
she had Xanax in her system. So this is what
we are seeing on our road lace. You know, it's
(05:54):
even harder with cannabis to determine if somebody is high,
but I could tell you that the reefs of somebody,
even if they're just using cannabis, is going to be
extremely slowed down and it's going to be impair driving.
And why I tell you all this. We have a solution.
We passed a law called the Halt Act, which has
passed in November twenty twenty one, which requires a national
(06:17):
safety standard for anti drunk driving technology in all new cars.
And I bring this up because it's about anti drunk driving,
but it's also about distracted driving. If you're nodding off
at the wheel, if you're on a text and you're
you're ready to ram into somebody, the vehicle will stop
because its senses that you are in danger, that something
(06:38):
is not right. We are now past the deadline for
the Hall to act with the rulemaking process, So we
encourage anybody who's listening to reach out to your local
congressmen and assembly people, whom Washington senators and congressmen, to
ask for this Hall's Act, ask for this passive technology
to be installed in all vehicles, because I will tell
(07:01):
you it will be the beginning of the end of
impaired driving. It will save ten thousand lives a year,
and that's an awful lot of lives that will be
saved by this hall pact.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I know it varies, but if someone is found to
be driving impaired and they actually harm or kill someone,
do the laws support consequences that would be a motivating
factor not to do that again?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
No, truly from my own experience. The woman who killed
my parents originally got three to twelve years for killing
two people, and she didn't even serve two years. And
the problem with that in and of itself, she murdered
two people. That's number one. But number two, they are
not rehabilitated in the prison systems. They come out and
(07:45):
they go right back into their patterns and do it again.
And that's about seventy percent of people that come out
of prison offend again. And that's a very scary statistic.
And another very scary statistics is it takes about eighty
times eight zero or somebody is caught with pair driving.
What would you.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Say to someone who is in that position? Somebody who says, listen,
I've been drinking for years, I can handle my liquor.
I've never hurt anyone, I've never killed anyone. I understand
and I'm sorry for your loss, but that really doesn't
apply to me. How would you encourage that person to
think differently?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
If possible, I would tell them my story and the
pain of that story, and the pain of every victim's story.
In one second, I lost my parents. I walked into
that hospital really proud, order of two amazing people, I
mean amazing people, and I walked out an orphan. And
not only did that choice affect me and my family,
(08:37):
but it also extended out to the community. There were
a thousand people at my parents' funeral. They were contributing
members of society. I still walk into restaurants in my
town and they all keep telling me how much they
missed my parents and how long what happened was. You're
not in a position. Even one drink can impair you.
(08:59):
It depends on what you ate that day, how tired
you were. There is no standard for impairment. Every situation
is different. And if you're going to have one or
two drinks, make a plan ahead of time, because you're
not only going to maim and kill innocent people, but
your life will be affected forever as well. You're going
(09:21):
to lose your license, You're going to go to prison,
you're going to pay fines, you're going to lose your job,
and you're going to have to live with the fact
that your choice destroyed a human life. So don't take
it upon yourself to say whether you are impaired or not.
I remember, before my parents died, I would have two
glasses of wine and get in the car and dive.
(09:42):
I would never ever do that right now, ever, ever,
because I could never live with myself in taking somebody's
happiness away from them and their family. The never being
able to say goodbye, the never being able to say
I love you, the horror they must have felt when
they were hit, they were conscious when the police arrived,
this fear that they must have felt. And that's why
(10:04):
I've given my life to be a mad national ambassador,
to make sure that what happened to me doesn't ever
have to happen to another person. Do know that every
day thirty six people die from drunk driving, and tomorrow
thirty six people will die, and the day after that,
thirty six people will die. Until we install things like
(10:26):
the Halt Act that will say thousands of lives a year,
we are going to continue to lose an unparalleled number
of lives.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
How can we speak to our kids about underage drinking
and in pair driving, because that's a whole different mentality.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You're absolutely right, Thank god it mad we have the
ability to talk to kids about underage drinking and in
pair driving. We encourage parents to have an open and
honest conversation with their children about the importance of making
safe choices. We have a booklet called the Power of Parents,
handbooks offering strategies to safeguard their children that will prevent
(11:03):
underage drinking and ultimately impaired driving. The kids are better educated, then,
let's say people who are in their forties and fifties today.
I mean, I see a lot of offenders who are older.
I think we are doing a good job getting into
the school systems, sharing our stories and telling them about
prevention and awareness. Never enough, right, We can never have
(11:25):
too many voices out there sharing the devastating consequences of
making a bad choice and getting into a car impaired.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
How can we learn more, Erica about what we've talked about.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I first want to offer if anybody needs supportive services.
We have served nearly one million victims of impaired driving
at no charge through local victim advocates and our twenty
four hour Victim Helpline one eight seven seven MAD madd
h ELP one eight seven seven mad madd h e ELP.
(12:01):
And for more information on volunteering or helping be part
of our community or to make a donation to MAD,
visit us at MAD dot org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok,
LinkedIn and YouTube. Because I will tell you it's going
to take all of us to end this one hundred
(12:21):
percent preventable crime, and no one is immune to this.
It will affect everyone. A very scary statistic that I
always speak about is two out of three people in
our lifetime will be affected by drunk driving. And that
scares me because I know how it devastated my life.
All victims live, and we're not in the minority anymore.
This can happen to any and everyone, and it does.
(12:44):
There are no parameters around it. You know, nobody cares
if you're a Republican or a Democrat, so this is
not a political issue. Nobody cares if you're African American,
or Asian or white. It affects everyone at any place
and time, and that's why we have this safety crisis
right now that we're dealing with on our roads. Every
thirty nine minutes in the United States, someone is killed
(13:08):
in a drunk driving craft. It doesn't have to happen.
Nobody needs to lose a life or become permanently impaired
because of drunk driving. We need to act and act
as a community to prevent these crashes from happening.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
So victims can get supported. Eight seven seven MAD Help,
that's MA d D Help eight seven seven madhelp or
mad dot org. Thank you so much, Erica, Erica Lynn.
Thank you for sharing about this important information today and
for setting us on the right track with how we
can help and hopefully save lives.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Thank you, thank you so much. I truly appreciate the
time and I appreciate your willingness to help. This is
something that affects everyone and we can. We can. We
have the power to end impair driving. Let's do this together.
I wish everybody a happy, healthy and say holidays makes
the right choice. So everybody around your table remains there.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And thank you for listening. Won't you join me again?
I'm your host, Michael Leach, and I am praying that
the rest of your day is wonderful,
Welcome to Starcares, a weekly program that delves into the
issues that impact you and your family. This program is
a public affairs feature of this radio station. Now here's
your host, Michael Leach.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Drunk driving deaths have increased thirty three percent since twenty nineteen,
and December is one of the most dangerous months for
impaired driving crashes. As the holiday season continues and kicks
into high gear, Mothers Against Drunk Driving MAD, they're reminding
us to prioritize safety. Let's talk about it. My guest
(00:34):
today is MAD Advocate Erica Lynn Erica, thank you for
joining me today and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Thank you for having me today. I really appreciate you
putting this important message about safety and prevention.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Absolutely tell us a bit about Mothers Against Drunk Driving
MAD organization, How and why did it come into existence?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I came into existence in the nineteen eighties when a
mother had lost a child to a drunk driving crash,
and she took it upon herself start an organization to
help create awareness and education and also to support millions
of victims that we have at MATT I being one
of them. I lost both of my parents at the
hands of a drunk driver on October twenty eighth, twenty sixteen,
(01:16):
which also happened to be my birthday. You know, MATT
is a fantastic organization that has many pillars to it,
you know, working with prevention and education, working with our
law enforcement partners to keep our roads safe, working with
our legislators to get differ laws and penalties for people
that have offended and caused fatalities and maimed innocent people,
(01:39):
And of course the care and support that is needed
for all victims of these one hundred percent preventable crimes.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
My sincere condolences to you and your lass and all
of the people who may be listening who've been impacted
by this horrible tragedy. According to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, junk driving claimed four seven hundred and fifteen
lives during the December months between twenty eighteen and twenty
twenty two, and in twenty twenty two, twelve hundred and
(02:07):
ten people died in alcohol related crashes in December alone.
Why do you believe that there's an increase in impaired
driving crashes when people know of the horrific outcomes.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I'm not sure how much they do take into account
that when they get behind a four thousand pounds weapon,
that they can kill a name minutcent people. You know,
the color of mad is red, and every time I
wear that color red, I think about all the innocent
people whose lives have been taken, whose blood has been
spilt that is one hundred percent preventable. And you're right,
(02:44):
this time of year, between the holidays, between Christmas, Tonica
and New Years and all of the other holidays, people
are on the roadways, more people are going to parties.
They're not making a plan ahead of time thinking about
the consequences that can happen to get behind a wheel impaired.
So with more people on our roadways, with weather patterns
(03:08):
being more dangerous, and with more people going to parties,
it's essential, It's really essential that people make a plan
ahead of times. I think the hardest part being a
victim of this crime is that my parents and every
other victims loved one should be here with us today.
That is something that is so not easily forgotten, and
(03:30):
it's probably the hardest part around the holidays for us
is that they should be around our table. They should
be with us for birthdays and for celebrations and for graduations,
baptisms and everything else that life is being celebrated, and
yet their lives are stolen from them because somebody made
a bad decision to get behind a wheel impaired. And
(03:52):
in today's world, there's no reason for this. We have
the tools to stop this. Take a pledge to never
drive and pair, plan ahead and decide how you will
arrive home, whether that's choosing a ride share, designating a
sober driver, or using public transportation. And if you must drive,
be divillagent. Sober designated drivers should be extra alert on
(04:15):
the roads as more impaired drivers will be there behind
the wheel. Nobody's saying don't enjoy yourself, don't have a
few drinks, but make a plan ahead so that everyone
in your family will be around your table this holiday season.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Really, in paired driving has become a national public health crisis.
It doesn't just include drinking. There's drugging and other distractions,
especially now with the increase of phone use, driving, texting,
and video chatting. Let's talk about some of these other distractions.
Because I think that people are like, well, I wasn't drunk,
I'm not drunk. Let me just look at this text message.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. I mean, distracted driving is a
big problem on our roadways. You have the added injury
of cannabis use. There is oftentimes both drug and alcohol use.
In the case of the woman who killed my parent,
she drank a bottle of Jack Daniels before leaving her house,
and I might add it was at eleven o'clock in
(05:11):
the morning on a Friday, and she went to a
bar where she met a friend and had four more drinks,
two Vodkas and two buybecks, and she proceeded to stumble
out of the bar, get in the car, and drive
sixty five miles on a residential road where she hit
my parents dead on and threw them sixty feet into
a wooded area. And the really really sad part of
(05:34):
this she was on her way to pick up her three,
five and seven year old children. And I am sure
that my parents blocked that death from their children, because
she would have killed her own children that day. Not
only alcohol, but she had cannabis in her system, and
she had Xanax in her system. So this is what
we are seeing on our road lace. You know, it's
(05:54):
even harder with cannabis to determine if somebody is high,
but I could tell you that the reefs of somebody,
even if they're just using cannabis, is going to be
extremely slowed down and it's going to be impair driving.
And why I tell you all this. We have a solution.
We passed a law called the Halt Act, which has
passed in November twenty twenty one, which requires a national
(06:17):
safety standard for anti drunk driving technology in all new cars.
And I bring this up because it's about anti drunk driving,
but it's also about distracted driving. If you're nodding off
at the wheel, if you're on a text and you're
you're ready to ram into somebody, the vehicle will stop
because its senses that you are in danger, that something
(06:38):
is not right. We are now past the deadline for
the Hall to act with the rulemaking process, So we
encourage anybody who's listening to reach out to your local
congressmen and assembly people, whom Washington senators and congressmen, to
ask for this Hall's Act, ask for this passive technology
to be installed in all vehicles, because I will tell
(07:01):
you it will be the beginning of the end of
impaired driving. It will save ten thousand lives a year,
and that's an awful lot of lives that will be
saved by this hall pact.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I know it varies, but if someone is found to
be driving impaired and they actually harm or kill someone,
do the laws support consequences that would be a motivating
factor not to do that again?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
No, truly from my own experience. The woman who killed
my parents originally got three to twelve years for killing
two people, and she didn't even serve two years. And
the problem with that in and of itself, she murdered
two people. That's number one. But number two, they are
not rehabilitated in the prison systems. They come out and
(07:45):
they go right back into their patterns and do it again.
And that's about seventy percent of people that come out
of prison offend again. And that's a very scary statistic.
And another very scary statistics is it takes about eighty
times eight zero or somebody is caught with pair driving.
What would you.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Say to someone who is in that position? Somebody who says, listen,
I've been drinking for years, I can handle my liquor.
I've never hurt anyone, I've never killed anyone. I understand
and I'm sorry for your loss, but that really doesn't
apply to me. How would you encourage that person to
think differently?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
If possible, I would tell them my story and the
pain of that story, and the pain of every victim's story.
In one second, I lost my parents. I walked into
that hospital really proud, order of two amazing people, I
mean amazing people, and I walked out an orphan. And
not only did that choice affect me and my family,
(08:37):
but it also extended out to the community. There were
a thousand people at my parents' funeral. They were contributing
members of society. I still walk into restaurants in my
town and they all keep telling me how much they
missed my parents and how long what happened was. You're
not in a position. Even one drink can impair you.
(08:59):
It depends on what you ate that day, how tired
you were. There is no standard for impairment. Every situation
is different. And if you're going to have one or
two drinks, make a plan ahead of time, because you're
not only going to maim and kill innocent people, but
your life will be affected forever as well. You're going
(09:21):
to lose your license, You're going to go to prison,
you're going to pay fines, you're going to lose your job,
and you're going to have to live with the fact
that your choice destroyed a human life. So don't take
it upon yourself to say whether you are impaired or not.
I remember, before my parents died, I would have two
glasses of wine and get in the car and dive.
(09:42):
I would never ever do that right now, ever, ever,
because I could never live with myself in taking somebody's
happiness away from them and their family. The never being
able to say goodbye, the never being able to say
I love you, the horror they must have felt when
they were hit, they were conscious when the police arrived,
this fear that they must have felt. And that's why
(10:04):
I've given my life to be a mad national ambassador,
to make sure that what happened to me doesn't ever
have to happen to another person. Do know that every
day thirty six people die from drunk driving, and tomorrow
thirty six people will die, and the day after that,
thirty six people will die. Until we install things like
(10:26):
the Halt Act that will say thousands of lives a year,
we are going to continue to lose an unparalleled number
of lives.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
How can we speak to our kids about underage drinking
and in pair driving, because that's a whole different mentality.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You're absolutely right, Thank god it mad we have the
ability to talk to kids about underage drinking and in
pair driving. We encourage parents to have an open and
honest conversation with their children about the importance of making
safe choices. We have a booklet called the Power of Parents,
handbooks offering strategies to safeguard their children that will prevent
(11:03):
underage drinking and ultimately impaired driving. The kids are better educated, then,
let's say people who are in their forties and fifties today.
I mean, I see a lot of offenders who are older.
I think we are doing a good job getting into
the school systems, sharing our stories and telling them about
prevention and awareness. Never enough, right, We can never have
(11:25):
too many voices out there sharing the devastating consequences of
making a bad choice and getting into a car impaired.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
How can we learn more, Erica about what we've talked about.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I first want to offer if anybody needs supportive services.
We have served nearly one million victims of impaired driving
at no charge through local victim advocates and our twenty
four hour Victim Helpline one eight seven seven MAD madd
h ELP one eight seven seven mad madd h e ELP.
(12:01):
And for more information on volunteering or helping be part
of our community or to make a donation to MAD,
visit us at MAD dot org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok,
LinkedIn and YouTube. Because I will tell you it's going
to take all of us to end this one hundred
(12:21):
percent preventable crime, and no one is immune to this.
It will affect everyone. A very scary statistic that I
always speak about is two out of three people in
our lifetime will be affected by drunk driving. And that
scares me because I know how it devastated my life.
All victims live, and we're not in the minority anymore.
This can happen to any and everyone, and it does.
(12:44):
There are no parameters around it. You know, nobody cares
if you're a Republican or a Democrat, so this is
not a political issue. Nobody cares if you're African American,
or Asian or white. It affects everyone at any place
and time, and that's why we have this safety crisis
right now that we're dealing with on our roads. Every
thirty nine minutes in the United States, someone is killed
(13:08):
in a drunk driving craft. It doesn't have to happen.
Nobody needs to lose a life or become permanently impaired
because of drunk driving. We need to act and act
as a community to prevent these crashes from happening.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
So victims can get supported. Eight seven seven MAD Help,
that's MA d D Help eight seven seven madhelp or
mad dot org. Thank you so much, Erica, Erica Lynn.
Thank you for sharing about this important information today and
for setting us on the right track with how we
can help and hopefully save lives.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Thank you, thank you so much. I truly appreciate the
time and I appreciate your willingness to help. This is
something that affects everyone and we can. We can. We
have the power to end impair driving. Let's do this together.
I wish everybody a happy, healthy and say holidays makes
the right choice. So everybody around your table remains there.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And thank you for listening. Won't you join me again?
I'm your host, Michael Leach, and I am praying that
the rest of your day is wonderful,
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