‘MADD’s Chat Support Group is the only thing that gets us through the week’
A Family Diminished
On October 6, 2007 Bill and Julie Downs’ son, new daughter-in-law and the newlyweds’ best friend were killed by a drunk driver just outside of Gulfport, Mississippi. One year later, a sobriety checkpoint in their honor has just been held at the crash site, to support MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving.
Killed in the 2007 crash were Brad, the Downs’ 21-year-old son, his 19-year-old bride of three and a half months, Samantha, and their 24-year-old best friend Chris Dafoe. All three of them had been living with Brad’s parents.
Instead of six people, Bill and Julie’s home now consists of only three. Their 25-year-old daughter, Cindy, who was not expected to live past the age of 2, is totally dependent on her parents. Severely mentally disabled, she functions at a mental age of 4 to 5.
MADD's Chat Support Group
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| Newlyweds Brad and Samantha Downs |
“MADD’s Chat Support Group is the only thing that gets us through the week,” says Bill. “Chat has kept us alive.’ He and Julie join MADD’s online chat every Monday and Thursday evening. “Getting out there and talking about what happened to our children has become the utmost therapy for me,” he says. “Chat is the best thing MADD has done.”
The couple plans to meet other chat participants in Louisville some day, as well as other victims/survivors he met when he took the beginning course for MADD victim advocates.
Turning Grief Into Action
Bill’s perseverance and determination to get involved quickly with MADD has led him to support MADD Victim Services and the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving in a variety of ways. “This is where I need to be,” he says. He is ready to assist others a year after the drunk driving crash that devastated his family. He tried appearing on a victim impact panel, but Bill says, “My anger was too raw” to face those offenders.
His recent efforts in asking the Gulfport Chief of Police to do a sobriety checkpoint “for the kids” on the crash anniversary led to “the three agencies that were there for them in the beginning now there again,” Bill says, “the Highway Patrol as host, with the Gulfport Police Department and Harrison County.” The day before the checkpoint, he also took MADD’s State Executive Director and MADD’s Victim Impact Panel leader to meet with the highway patrol public affairs officer, to an interview with the local paper and to meet the city police chief and the Harrison County sheriff.
A maintenance technician for the Gulfport Independent School District, Bill specializes in air conditioning. Julie previously worked as a laundry attendant but had to quit her job after the crash, unable to work. Doing extensive research on the computer, Bill says he’s “hungry for more. In 2006-2007 there were 302 people killed in Mississippi due to drunk driving and three of those belong to me.”
The 37-year-old female drunk driver, reportedly a repeat offender, who hit Brad’s car head-on was also killed in last October’s crash.
Passion and Activism
As an activist, Bill passionately supports MADD. He has started talking to elementary school classes and has been asked to address local high school audiences. “If I can reach kids, maybe I can reach adults,” he says. “Whatever I can do to help MADD spread the word about the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving has become my reason for going out there and speaking to all who will listen.
“Letting people know that my kids had a life that was stolen from them, that they’re not just statistics. That’s my mission,” he says, “to eliminate drunk driving in honor of those three kids.”
MADD gives you a voice and a place where your loved ones will be honored.
You can connect to, share stories with or ask questions of victims/survivors of drunk driving crashes nationwide in MADD’s password-protected forum.
Join the moderated MADD Victim Survivor Chat Support Group.
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