THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9511290144
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 224 lines
UNDER PAULA Whalen's name was the word ``survivor.''
Mavolyn Jones' and Maureen Kesslen's name tags said ``victim.''
Survivor or victims, the thread linking these women is tragedy.
The constant pain - physical and mental.
The lives that are changed forever.
The loved ones who won't ever be home again to share Christmas or a birthday.
All three women have pledged not to let their tragedies go unheeded. Members of the Southside Community Action Team of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), they tell their personal stories wherever they are invited.
They want to hammer home their message - drunken driving can destroy you and your family.
Together with representatives of 19 other organizations that try to stop people from drinking and driving, these women gathered at the Safe and Sober media expo at Grand Affairs recently.
The expo, the first unified effort of anti-drinking and driving groups here, was the kickoff for this year's drunken driving campaign. ``None for the Road this Holiday Season!'' officially begins today as part of ``Drunk & Drugged Driving (3-D) Prevention Month.''
``It shows a lot of unity,'' said Steve Hearne, acting executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program (ASAP). ``It's quite obvious that we're all working together trying to solve the same problem.''
Organizers are hoping citizens will hear their message loud and clear through stepped-up campaigning by anti-drinking and driving groups; a barrage of radio, television and print images hitting their eyes and ears; and more law enforcement agencies keeping a sharp lookout for drinking drivers during this holiday season.
``The goal for the expo was to provide a variety of different outlooks, ideas and contacts (to the media) on the issue of drunk driving,'' said Mary Ann Rayment, a public relations specialist with the Department of Motor Vehicles' Community Traffic Safety Program. ``Also, to show the strength of our prevention programs.''
Rayment said not one organization turned down the invitation to provide information at the expo. Like others, Rayment said she firmly believes that education is the key to reducing DUI fatalities.
``People need to know this is not acceptable and the law and public and private sectors are going to back this up,'' said Rayment.
Rayment said she believes that last year's alcohol-related fatalities declined - though just slightly - because of education. ``Although, one fatality is too many for a very preventable thing,'' she added.
The Virginia Beach Chapter of Concerned Citizens Advocating Traffic Safety and the Beer Wholesalers Association underwrote the expo, helping bring all the groups together to offer information on the challenge they all share - reducing the amount of drunken and drugged drivers. Others joining the effort included DMV's Community Traffic Safety Program; the Norfolk, Newport News, Suffolk and Virginia Beach police departments; the Army, Navy and Air Force; AAA of Tidewater; the Virginia Department of Transportation; the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program (VASAP); Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Police; Nationwide and State Farm Insurance; and the Virginia Travel and Hospitality Association.
Each special-interest group sponsored a booth and handed out pamphlets and information concerning its particular topic. MADD's booth was covered with pictures of lost loved ones and news articles pertaining to deaths caused by drunken drivers.
Other sponsors concocted and passed out samples of non-alcoholic drinks.
Those who ``had to see it to believe it'' got to try out a drunken driving simulator vehicle.
And everywhere were crash facts - nine people in Virginia Beach died in 1994 in alcohol-related accidents and 590 were injured. Backing up those facts were people willing to tell and retell their own painful stories of encounters with drinking drivers.
It was New Year's Eve 1991. Paula Whalen, a 43-year-old grandmother of three, was returning from a bowling tournament when a drunken motorist, who was driving on the wrong side of the road, slammed into the van in which she was a passenger.
The driver of the van, Whalen's boss, received minor injuries. Whalen ended up in the hospital with a ruptured disc.
``I spend every day in pain,'' said Whalen, a Norfolk resident. ``The life I had is totally gone.''
There are the obvious scars of Whalen's ordeal - the tennis shoes she wears to help support her lower back, Saturday nights spent at home because she can no longer bowl, and hours spent in physical therapy and with doctors.
There are also the not-so-obvious psychological scars.
``This was the first summer I couldn't take my grandchildren to the beach,'' said Whalen, who said she is now terrified of driving. ``Of course, they don't understand why Grandma can't pick them up anymore. Those are the kind of scars that don't show.''
Mavolyn Jones hasn't celebrated her birthday for two years.
She vowed never to celebrate the day again in honor of her brother, who also shared the same birthday but was two years older.
James Jones, a 32-year-old father of one, was killed by a drunken driver on his way to work on Princess Anne Road in 1993.
The wounds are still raw for Maureen Kesslen. She and her husband, Richard, were looking forward to many more years together. In the 12 years they had been married, the two had established careers, raised a couple of children and really begun to enjoy life.
They were living in Phoenix, Ariz., where Richard Kesslen was a health fanatic and a corporate executive. On Aug. 7, a Monday, Maureen Kesslen's life was changed forever.
At 9:30 a.m., a drunken driver going 80 mph plowed into the back of Richard Kesslen's van, which was at a standstill.
He was killed instantly. And now Maureen has returned home to Hampton Roads to be with family.
Later, Maureen Kesslen learned that the 18-year-old drunken driver became a new father on the same day that her husband was killed.
Kesslen, Jones and Whalen are members of MADD for the same reasons.
``I have to do this for his sake,'' said Kesslen about her husband. ``I don't want him forgotten.''
Jones doesn't want her brother forgotten, either. And Paula Whalen? She doesn't want anyone to go through the pain she's had to deal with and will probably have to deal with the rest of her life.
``I feel like I'm doing something to vent my anger in a positive way,'' said Whalen. ``I'd heard of MADD for years, but this problem did not hit me or sink in until it happened to me. Don't wait until it happens to you.'' MEMO: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is holding its next meeting at 6:30
p.m. Tuesday at the Central Library on Virginia Beach Boulevard. The
group also is holding a candlelight vigil in remembrance of victims and
their families at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 in the lobby of Chesapeake General
Hospital, 736 N. Battlefield Blvd. For information on the Southside
Chapter, call 670-3850.
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
NONE FOR THE ROAD
Maureen Kesslen's husband, Richard, was killed by a drunken driver
Aug. 7, 1995, in Phoenix. ``I have to do this for his sake,'' said
Kesslen of her presence at the expo. ``I don't want him
forgotten.''
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
WAVY-TV reporter Andy Fox, right, is filmed drinking a rum and cola
while Newport News police officer Mike Poole waits to test his
blood-alchohol level. Poole figured it would take three drinks in
one hour for Fox to surpass the legal blood-alcohol level of 0.08 on
the breathalyzer.
Norfolk police officer Jim Richards uses a radar gun and sign to
show drivers their speed. He said the sign is used for enforcement
and awareness.
Faces behind the stats
Karen Pyle of Virginia Beach stands in front of pictures of people
killed by drunken drivers. Pyle was hit by a drunken driver on
London Bridge Road May 17, 1991, in an accident that killed one and
severely injured her. She suffered a broken ankle, wrist, knee,
cheek bone, a skull fracture and a brain injury that left her
paralyzed on her left side. The drunken driver was sentenced to four
months in jail and seven years probation.
Staff photos, including color cover illustration,
by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
WAVY-TV reporter Andy Fox, right, is filmed drinking a rum and cola
while Newport News police officer Mike Poole waits to test his
blood-alchohol level. Poole figured it would take three drinks in
one hour for Fox to surpass the legal blood-alcohol level of 0.08 on
the breathalyzer.
Norfolk police officer Jim Richards uses a radar gun and sign to
show drivers their speed. He said the sign is used for enforcement
and awareness.
Wayne Smith, president of the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association
and owner of Alexander's on the Bay, mixes a ``Mocktail,'' a
nonalcoholic drink that, Smith says, helps nondrinkers fit in with
the crowd.
Staff photo by
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
THE LAW
Here's the legal scoop on drinking and driving.
You are legally considered to be driving under the influence of
alcohol if your blood-alcohol content (BAC) is 0.08 percent or
higher. For some people, an 0.08 could mean as few as two drinks in
an hour.
If your blood-alcohol content is lower than 0.08 percent, you can
still be convicted of driving under the influence - even with the
lower blood-alcohol content.
This year, the law changed. Since Jan. 1, if you refuse a breath
test or if your BAC is 0.08 or higher, your driver's license is
automatically revoked for seven days. You also no longer have an
option of requesting a blood test over a breath test for
alcohol-related offenses.
Courtesy of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
THE FACTS
This is what drinking and driving can do.
In Virginia, there were 376 people killed and 10,258 people
injured in alcohol-related accidents in 1994.
In Virginia Beach, there were 739 crashes, nine deaths and 590
injuries in alcohol-related crashes in 1994.
One alcohol-related traffic death happens every 30 minutes.
Nearly two of every five Americans will be involved in an
alcohol-related crash during their lifetime.
Courtesy of Virginia Drunk and Drugged Driving 3-D Prevention Month
Campaign Committee's 1995 Resource Guide.
NONALCOHOL DRINKS
Here are some of the recipes tested at the Safe and Sober media
expo.
The Brave Bull - 1 cup beef bouillon, ice cubes and a generous
dash of Tabasco. Shake and serve hot or cold.
Designated Driver's Delight - 2.5 ounces orange juice, 1.25
ounces pineapple juice, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, 1.25 ounces
of cranberry juice, 1 ounce of frozen strawberries. Mix in blender
until smooth. Serve in a hurricane glass with orange slice.
New Year's Eve Kiss - Pour 2 ounces of passion fruit juice in a
champagne flute. Fill with club soda.
Courtesy of the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association
KEYWORDS: DRUNKEN DRIVING by CNB