Jarrod Knox - "Every Guy’s Best Friend and Every Girl’s Sweetheart”

Kim Knox felt she’d lost everything. Her only child, 18-year-old Jarrod, died in November 2005, following a night of drinking and playing cards with three adults who let him drive away drunk. At the time, Jarrod was a freshman at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales in Curry County, which had the dubious distinction of being the No.1 county for underage drinking in the United States.

The night he died Jarrod was with his boss and two other adults. They were all drinking. While Jarrod made a bad decision to drink underage, the adults let him down at multiple stages. An adult provided the alcohol, adult friends drank with him. He was so drunk, the adults propped him up and leaned him against the car while they put the leftover beer in his car. Ten minutes later, he drove into a culvert and the one-car crash killed him. Four hours later, Jarrod’s blood alcohol content (BAC) measured .238.

“Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, unless they’re as drunk as you are,” says Kim.

After Jarrod’s death, she was suicidal and fueled by anger. She constantly prayed to God to let her die. “I started a civil suit against the three adults, but no matter how much I might have gained, financial rewards wouldn’t have helped me sleep through the night. Either way, I still end up at the cemetery. My faith is huge. I let my anger go, in order to do something positive. Jarrod deserves better.”

“He was every guy’s best friend, and every girl’s sweetheart,” Kim says. “He was very popular, a great athlete, had a good head on his shoulders and usually made good decisions. But that night he made a bad choice.”

Jarrod’s school friends were devastated, she says. “Van loads of ENMU students came to Springfield, Missouri for his service. Hoards of them were at our house day after day. They kept saying, ‘He took care of us – he knew what to do.’ They never thought Jarrod would die.”  

“A group of girls sat on a blanket at the cemetery day after day. I finally said ‘Enough. Remember his life, not his death. Don’t sit here crying.’”   

Kim now works in a substance abuse facility for women, on the 4:30 p.m. to midnight shift. During the day, she volunteers through MADD, speaking to students of all ages, to parents and to incarcerated drunk drivers. She completed MADD’s basic victim advocate training and is ready for the advanced class.

“I want to be that person who picks up the phone, like my MADD victim advocate did after Jarrod died. I was lost without her, and it’s huge to me to be able to help others.”

Honor victims and survivors of drunk driving crashes by completing an online tribute.

Make a donation in support of MADD's lifesaving work.

Join MADD in the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving to help make your community safer. Take the Pledge to Eliminate Drunk Driving today.