SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kathleen Harris lost her daughter to a drunk driver in 1981. Now, she finds herself alongside the Sacramento Police Department as part of Mother Against Drunk Driving educating people about drunk driving during the Memorial Day weekend.
Kathleen Harris’ daughter was only 12-years-old when her mother lost her to a drunk driver that crashed into her vehicle.
“That’s why we do what we do,” Harris said.
On Saturday, members of the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving had joined Sacramento police in educating the public about the dangers of impaired driving at a Midtown sobriety checkpoint. Other family members of victims and survivors who were seriously injured or killed in impaired driving related crashes were also at the event.
At the checkpoint, officers stopped drivers in Midtown to ask if they had been drinking, to check for valid licenses, and to hand out educational information about impaired driving.
Harris, with family members by her side, passed out educational information to drivers about the risk, cost, and dangers of drunk driving.
“We all do what we can to help the situation,” Harris said. “We want more drunk drivers off the road.”
10,497 people were killed in alcohol related crashes in the United States in 2016. Alcohol related crashes accounted for nearly one third of all fatal crashes in the United States that year.
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