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METRO DETROIT— The holiday season brings lots of opportunities for friends and family to get together to celebrate.
It’s also one of the most dangerous times of year on the nation’s roadways, according to law enforcement officials.
Local police, along with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, are reminding everyone to designate a nondrinking driver if alcohol is involved in their festivities.
Law enforcement officers from around the area met at the M1 Concourse Nov. 21 to promote the Tie One On for Safety campaign organized by MADD, which asks everyone to designate a nondrinking driver.
During the event, officers placed red ribbons on their vehicles as a visual reminder for everyone to designate a driver and not drive drunk. Officers then drove around the M1 Concourse in solidarity against impared driving.
Officer Nick Soley of the Bloomfield Township Police Department said this is the second year Bloomfield Township has partnered with MADD to promote the campaign.
“It’s a good reminder for the holidays that we need to be responsible and we need to designate a driver,” said Soley. “It doesn’t matter who you are. No one is immune to it.”
Many other local police departments joined Bloomfield Township this year to help promote the MADD campaign, including Auburn Hills, Birmingham, Clawson, Ferndale, Madison Heights, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, the Michigan State Police, Northville, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, Rochester, Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy, West Bloomfield and Wixom.
Rochester police Lt. Keith Harper said many departments are seeing an increase in impaired driving car crashes and fatalities.
“You can never stop promoting this message to keep everyone safe and make good decisions, before tragedies happen,” he said of the Tie One On For Safety campaign.
This year alone, Solely said, Bloomfield Township has made over 150 impaired driving arrests and investigated over 40 crashes involving an impaired driver. Several fatal accidents, he explained, have been the result of suspected drunk or drugged drivers.
Taylor Greeson and Jason Waldron, MADD volunteers, shared how they were both personally impacted by drunken driving crashes.
Greeson said three of her loved ones were killed in drunken driving crashes.
“Nothing is worth putting a family through the pain millions of families, including mine, have been put through because of one wrong decision,” Greeson said.
Greeson’s great-grandmother, she said, was killed at the hands of a drunken driver in 1941 at the age of 24. In December of 2005, Greeson said, a man who she called “Grandpa Marty” was killed by a fourth-time driving under the influence offender. And in 2015, Greeson’s close family friend, Jason Betcher — who was 26 at the time — was killed by a wrong-way drunken driver on Valentine’s Day.
“One night of fun is not worth a lifetime of trauma,” Greeson added.
Waldron lost his father, his stepmother and his two brothers in a crash due to a drunk and drugged driver the day after Thanksgiving 42 years ago. Waldron, who was 10 at the time, is the lone survivor and continues to share his family’s story in the hopes of saving a life.
“I am the voice of my parents. I am the voice of my brothers,” said Waldron.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan also participated in the kick-off event.
Kenneth Stecker, who serves as Michigan’s Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor and is a member of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, said MADD’s National Law Enforcement Committee is concerned about the increase in traffic deaths over the past three years.
“Preliminary traffic fatality data estimates more than 20,000 people were killed on American roads in the first half of 2022 … a 16-year high, largely due to impaired driving, speeding and unbuckled occupants,” Stecker said.
Drunken driving, he added, accounts for one-third of all traffic deaths.
“At this rate, the number of drunk driving deaths could exceed 12,000 for the first time in over a decade. That’s a number we do not want to see,” he said.
Stecker thanked law enforcement officers for their work to keep the public safe and urged the public to make the right choice if they decide to consume alcohol.
“These are not accidents — accidents are unforeseen,” said Stecker. “Crashes happen because somebody gets into their vehicle, they are drunk or they are drugged, and they decide to drive. It’s a choice they make.”
