Western North Carolina Community Action Site

Your CAS Leader is Ellen Pitt  Email: western@maddnc.org

Serving Haywood, Buncombe, and Henderson Counties.

For information or to volunteer, please call our new MADD line for Western NC CAS:  828-926-1151

Updated 11-10-09 by your CAS Leader

Hello everyone. Please join us in an evening of remembrance along with NC Governor's Highway Safety Program.

Date: Saturday, December 5th at 6PM

Location: Murphy Church of God

Directions: Take Highway 74/64 West through Nantahala Gorge.

                    Follow 64 West to Ace Hardware on the right.

                    Turn right at Ace Hardware onto Church of Christ Road.

                    Follow up the hill and take a left at the Murphy Church of God sign.

Telephone: (828) 837-2881

We will be remembering those who have been killed or injured on NC highways.

Updated 12-9-08 by your CAS Leader

        (Candlelight Service)

A Candle Light Vigil Service is Scheduled for December 6, 2008 at 8PM. It will be at the Haywood County Sherriffs Office. I look forward to seeing you there.

Driving While Impaired by alcohol and/or other drugs kills someone in America every 31 minutes (CDC) and injures someone every two minutes. Driving While Impaired by illegal drugs and/or prescription drugs is investigated and prosecuted the same way as driving drunk from alcohol. Procedurally, the investigation may be different in two ways: (1) A specially trained officer, called a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) may be called in to perform a comprehensive assessment and (2) a blood specimen may be obtained, rather than a breath specimen.

     The processing of a single DWI arrestee takes an average of one and a half hours and can take as long as three hours. During that time, the officer must remain with the arrestee. A volume of paperwork begins to ensure that all of the arrestees rights are perfectly observed. The arrestee, though, is often bailed out within the hour after arrest. Case in point: the Haywood County offender from several years ago who was re-arrested for driving drunk 155 minutes after the first arrest.

     During the month of August, 2008, 56 people were arrested in Haywood County for Driving While Impaired. Contrary to popular belief, all six law-enforcement agencies in the county are diligent and dedicated to the swift identification and professional arrest of any DWI offender. They have all seen, too frequently, the death and destruction they cause.

     During the month of September, 2008, only 32 drunks were removed from the roads, due to the shortage of gasoline for police vehicles. There was a death on September 30, 2008, which appears to have involved alcohol and/or drugs. We will not know whether the shortage of necessary resources for enforcement might have played a preventive role.

     On October 18, 2008, just 18 days later, another killing by a drunk driver took place.

     There were 39 arrests during the month of October, with blood alcohols as high as .30.

     November has only just begun, and there have already been nine arrests. And, don't think you are safe during the day. On November 8, 2008, a driver was arrested with a blood alcohol of .23 at 1:26 in the afternoon.

     For every drunk driver out there, there is a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a child, a chaplain, a wife or husband, a friend somewhere ¦someone who will suffer the stress, strain, fear, and financial hardship that follows the crime of driving drunk. Someone who would have come to pick you up. Someone who would have called you a cab. Even if there is no wreck, no death, no injury, someone will suffer in other ways because someone else was criminally stupid enough to drive drunk.

     If you choose to drive impaired, you will, though, have a new best friend ----a defense lawyer.  That new car you are helping him buy, those house payments you are helping him make, and the nice clothes his kids will be wearing---the more drunk drivers that come through the door, the nicer his lifestyle gets. But, chances are greater than 90% that, when you finally get in front of a judge, you will be convicted anyhow.

      Just from the past there months and nine days, 136 Haywood County families will be stressed, some to the breaking point, by the financial burden, the endless court appearances, the loss of driving privileges and maybe jobs, the increased insurance premiums, and the shame of living with a drunk diver. Some of the drunk drivers will most certainly go to prison, as in the case of the two who killed.

     So, if you are tempted to drink and drive, give the rest of us a break, and find some other way to get attention and be the so-called life-of-the-party.   How impressive is the guy, or girl, who says, We are all out for the evening, but I am the Designated Driver. Coffee, please.

ASHEVILLE - The Buncombe County District Attorneys Office has led the state over the past eight years in the number of people prosecuted for habitual driving while impaired, members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Tuesday.

A representative from MADD recognized District Attorney Ron Moore and Assistant District Attorney Chris Hess for their aggressive pursuit of drunken driving cases, presenting them with certificates of appreciation at a meeting in the Buncombe County Courthouse.

One of the things I saw early on as a DA was that we dealt with eight, 10 or 12 cases a year, on the average, where someone was killed by a drunk driver, and we absolutely have no tolerance for thatâ₁¡ said Moore.

The Buncombe County District Attorneys Office convicted 155 people of habitual DWI between 1999 and 2007, outnumbering Mecklenburg County by 14 despite Mecklenburg having charged more than three times as many people with driving drunk, according to statistics compiled by the district attorneys office.

A person can be charged with habitual DWI if they have been convicted three times of DWI within 10 years. As a felony charge, it carries a 1-year minimum sentence.

Moore said securing habitual DWI charges requires effort on the part of the district attorneys office to research a persons background and determine if they have drunk driving charges in other states.

His office acquired a grant from the Governors Crime Commission that funds full-time staff to track down people who don't show up in court after being charged with driving drunk.

Moore said he also pushed for a law that recently passed requiring officers to photograph and fingerprint DWI suspects who don't have proper identification. He said many offenders provide a false name to officers after they've been caught drinking and driving.

Ellen Pitt, a victim advocate for MADD in Western North Carolina, said Moores office works with highway patrol officers and the community to make sure they are doing everything possible to stop drunken driving.

The question always comes up when something terrible happens and its a person who was a repeat offender or a failure to appear. How could they possibly be out on the highway? How could they possibly be doing these crimes? They should have been in jail, Pitt said.

He (Moore) really goes the extra mile to make sure they are not out there, she said.

On the Web: www.madd.org/NC

Western Region

Our mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime, and to prevent underage drinking.

Your CAS Leader can always use your help with events and suggestions.  Please contact her with your ideas.