“There were more than 25,000 alcohol-related crashes in our state in 2012,” said TxDot Spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis during opening remarks. “The numbers alone can’t describe the impact of these crashes on individuals and their families.”
Dennis Pennywell was the first to speak after Lewis, accompanied to the podium by his wife Kae and son Jack. The Pennywells know the toll that drunk driving takes on families as well as anyone. On June 25, 2011, 20-year-old Aaron Pennywell was driving home through Cypress from a late-night dinner at Whataburger when a drunk driver with a blood .241 alcohol level — over three times the legal limit — slammed into his car. The drunk driver survived; Aaron did not.
The totaled Mustang Aaron was driving that night was on display in front of Williams tower, serving as a grim reminder of drunk driving’s dire consequences.
Since investigators couldn’t conclusively determine who ran the red light where the crash occurred, Michael Giacona, the drunk driver, received only about 90 days in jail for a second offense DWI charge. He received shock probation on the condition that he spend four consecutive Saturdays on a street corner bearing a sign stating, “I killed Aaron Coy Pennywell while driving drunk.” After one Saturday, Giacona argued that holding the sign put his personal safety at risk, and the judge remanded him back to jail. After another few days he was released, Pennywell said.
“The truth is though, he’ll have to live with knowing that he killed an innocent young man because of driving drunk,” Pennywell said. “As a result of the crash, we had to immediately organize and pay for a funeral, something a parent shouldn’t have to do. There is enough disease and enough other reasons for parents to have to bury their child; drunk driving is 100 percent preventable. We had to learn a whole lot more about our justice system than we ever cared to know. We’ve spent a lot more time in the courthouse than we ever cared to spend. And we have to see that empty space at special occasions — Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, birthdays — Aaron’s not there, it’s an empty chair.”
Will Womble, chair of the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) Houston chapter, took the podium to praise the benefits of the “no-refusal weekend” a program that gives law enforcement the authority to force suspected drunk drivers to submit to intravenous blood-alcohol testing if they refuse a breathalyzer.
“MADD supports the no refusal program,” Womble said, “and is proud to say that statistics show that over the last few years with the incorporation of no refusal programs in and around our community, the effects of drunk driving have gone down.”
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia spoke next, flanked on both sides by deputies to accentuate the point that the crime of drunk driving is taken extremely seriously by his office. He said his staff will be on the lookout this holiday weekend, as well as year-round, for anyone unwilling to abstain from alcohol consumption before operating a vehicle.
“We have a jail cell ready for you if … you’re too proud to have a designated driver,” Garcia said. “We have plenty of designated drivers at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office to drive you to jail. And we will. Because the faces of drunk driving can’t be made any more clear than what you heard from the Pennywell family [or] from the fact the MADD had to come into existence.”
HPD Capt. Larry Baimbridge expanded upon Garcia’s remarks, elaborating on the activities of HPD traffic enforcement division officers whose sole target are drunk drivers.
“These guys are tasked with looking for, detecting and arresting drunk drivers,” Baimbridge said. “That’s their sole job, that’s their sole goal in the Houston Police Department … and they do a very good job of it. So the message here is clear: drive sober, find a safe ride home. It’s simply not worth the risk.”
Jeff Kaufman, the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s transportation program coordinator, told those in attendance how H-GAC received a step grant for smaller law enforcement agencies in the area to qualify for funding to conduct their own drunk driving enforcement efforts, a task force which Kaufman said has now grown to 15 agencies.
“As of Memorial Day weekend, we’ve conducted three waves,” Kaufman said. “This is a pilot project, this is something that hasn’t been done regionally or for the state, but we’ve made 115 arrests for suspected DWIs over these three weekends. DWI is easily avoidable, just don’t’ drink and drive. Get a designated driver, don’t overdo the celebration, just be responsible. Because it’s really not worth risking other people’s lives, it’s not worth risking time in jail.”
Though the efforts of these different agencies won’t bring back Aaron Pennywell — whose story is one of many on facesofdrunkdriving.com — his parents are hoping that by relating the senseless and tragic nature of their eldest son’s death, at least something positive will come from the abrupt end to Aaron’s life.
“Mainly it’s to tell these [people to] make choices when you are going to drink,” Kae Pennywell told Houston Community Newspapers. “Get a cab, call a friend to come pick you up, sleep it off, have a designated driver.
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Source: The Rancher (Haverkamp, 7/2)
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