Triad Community Action Site

Your New CAS (Community  Action Site) Leader is Wayne McNeil.   Wayne is a long time member and can be reached at wlmcneil@bellsouth.net  or to leave a message dial: 336-288-3332

Serving: Alamance, Guilford and Randolph Counties

**We will have our MADD TRIAD Meeting June 26th at 6:30 PM in High Point, NC at the Golden Corral.                                                        1080 Mall Loop High Pooint, NC 27262 (for more information 336-495-6233)

Look at What the Triad has been doing......

** April 25, 2008 (Friday). In High Point on 85...there were 10 DWI arrested and numerous other charges at the check point.

** Our Candlelight Vigil/Awards Ceremony Banquet will be at the Old Sunset Theater on Sunset in Asheboro, NC

** Claire Casale had a daughter killed and a son injured (November 17, 2007) by  drunk driver Bobby Wayne Heaton.  Mr. Heaton is going to face 10 years for  prior DWI charges and will be charged for the Nov. 17, 2007 drunk driving crash of Ms. Casale's family.  The charges will be for Murder 2, Assault with deadly weapon with bodily harm.....SMILE....We just love our Law Enforcement!!!!

Special thank you, for the provided information, from Dee Moss-MADD Volunteer.

Arnold has also sent in 4 new membership cards for the area (Way to go Arnold!).

Drunken driving death toll on the rise

By Jennifer Fernandez
Staff writer

Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007 3:00 am

DWI penalties

Penalties for driving while impaired range from as little as 24 hours in jail to several years in prison, depending on a variety of factors.
Prosecutors also can seek charges such as first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. However, those charges can be more difficult to prove.
In North Carolina, several charges were created or modified specifically to deal with alcohol-related offenses. Those charges include habitual offender, felony death by vehicle and the new felony serious injury by vehicle. The state has to prove someone is drunk, not whether they intended to hurt someone, for those charges.
Once a defendant is found guilty of a charge, the judge has to look at “mitigating†and “aggravating†factors to determine where a defendant falls in the state’s structured sentencing system.
Mitigating factors, such as submitting to alcohol-abuse treatment, can lighten a sentence.
Aggravating factors, such as having a prior record of DWI, can lengthen a sentence.
If those factors cancel each other out, there is a middle ground called the “presumptive†range that the judge can use.
Additionally, sentences get longer depending on a defendant’s prior record.
Last week, a judge sentenced former news anchor Tolly Carr to 25 to 39 months in prison. That was the high end of the presumptive range on a felony death by vehicle charge for someone with no record.

Reporting a drunken driver

Call the police, 911 or the Highway Patrol at (800) 445-8621 or *47 on a cell phone.

Provide the following information:
* Exact location (identify road and direction) of the vehicle.
* Complete description of the vehicle, such as make, model, color, license number.
* Manner in which the vehicle is being driven.

Source: MADD

"It's not going to happen to me. I've only got two blocks to go."

But it does happen. A lot.

Last year, 17,602 alcohol-related traffic crashes nationwide left someone dead, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In March, after a night of barhopping, local TV news anchor Tolly Carr drove his Ford pickup through a construction zone and killed 26-year-old Casey Bokhoven.

A toxicology expert estimated Carr's blood-alcohol concentration was 0.20 at the time of the wreck. North Carolina considers 0.08 as legally intoxicated.

A judge last week sentenced Carr to a minimum of two years and one month in prison.

The former news anchor, 32, was moved Tuesday to Piedmont Correctional Institute in Rowan County. He will probably stay there for four to six weeks before being assigned to a more permanent location, likely closer to Forsyth County, said Keith Acree, a spokesman with the Department of Correction.

During his sentencing, a tearful Carr apologized to Bokhoven's family and pledged to speak out against the dangers of drinking and driving  a plan the judge encouraged.

It's the same pledge Mothers Against Drunk Driving made at its founding 27 years ago.

Taking a stand

We raised the legal drinking age.

We passed tougher drinking and driving laws.

We raised awareness through MADD and other organizations.

And we can see the effects. During the past 20 years, alcohol-related crashes nationwide dropped by 27 percent.

But that still leaves 17,602 people dead.

And that number is rising, up from 15,935 nearly a decade ago, the highway safety administration reports.

There were 35 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in Guilford County in 2005, the latest year data is available.

Why haven't we learned the lesson?

Wayne McNeil, who oversees a victim's impact panel of the local MADD chapter, blames it on not wanting to take responsibility for our actions.

Another problem is that treatment for repeat offenders is insufficient and inefficient, said Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson.

"Sadly, Guilford County is a barren desert when it comes to obtaining in-house, inpatient substance abuse treatment," he said.

Commissioners are trying to create a substance abuse treatment center, but financing issues delayed the opening to next year.

Meanwhile, Henderson is pursuing a grant to create an alcohol court, similar to the drug court started several years ago and the new mental health court that opened this year.

Such courts can focus on offenders with specific issues and perhaps, Henderson hopes, do a better job of finding effective treatments.

Henderson and William Reavis, an assistant district attorney in Guilford, say the legislature has gone about as far as it can to toughen the laws.

The state recently ramped up punishment for DWIs, adding the felony injury by vehicle charge and stiffening penalties at both the felony and misdemeanor level.

Reavis wonders if society is ready to send someone to prison for life on a first DWI charge or even for repeat offenders when no one is killed.

"I just don't know if we as a society are ready for that or even want that," Reavis said.

But McNeil says penalties still aren't severe enough.

"When you talk about penalties," he says, "ask the mother who's buried a child."

Forging ahead

"We're just glad that this part is over," Fjola Ingvadottir Wilson said after Carr's sentencing last week. "It's been just such a tragic situation all around."

Wilson, Carr's passenger and co-worker at WXII (Channel 12), pleaded with the judge to not punish Carr for her injuries. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and a broken shoulder in the crash.

The judge suspended Carr's sentence on the felony serious injury by vehicle charge.

Carr plans to speak to students, or anyone who will listen, about the dangers of drinking and driving.

About how 30 seconds can change your life.

How apologizing can never take back what you've done.

"I think we do need to do everything we need to do to try to get the message (out)," visiting Superior Court Judge John Smith told Carr.

If, by speaking out, Carr can save just one person, save one mother's heartache, it will be worth it, Smith said.

McNeil also thinks Carr could be a good speaker.

Because Carr knows now what McNeil tells audiences for the victim's impact panel.

"Life doesn't have a rewind button."

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 orjfernandez@news-record.com

Arnold Owenby, Dee Moss, Todd Danley and Heather Frazer are also heping Tammy and Wayne Mcneil.  These volunteers are dedicated in helping with law enforcement.  They have reported 7 DWI arrests in High Point on June 29, 2007 and 11 DWI arrests in Randolph County on June 30, 2007(Thank you Arnold for the information).

Tammy is in need of Newspaper/Community Forum Volunteers.....Please contact her ASAP email: thkernodle@clearwire.net

Tammy Kernodle has approximately 6 CAS /VA volunteers working with her.  Tammy’s group of helpers include; Lisa A. Wisz, Doug Wisz, Wayne McNeil, Cathy Merritt, Dee Moss, and Arnold Owenby who has completed classes and helps as Victim Advocate and Community Action Site assistant.  She is the only leader that has taken advantage of utilizing active volunteers that really want to make a difference.  Her volunteers push the envelope in court cases, political issues, radio, news, events and a wealth of other information for MADD.  How great is that!  KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!  It really takes more than one person to complete our mission. You the volunteer, really make a difference.

Please volunteer.