June 2020 e-newsletter

We are extremely sad to report that MADD was forced to restructure nationally due to the financial impact of COVID 19. With this came difficult decisions, and unfortunately, the MADD VA Program Director position was one of those eliminated. Chris Konschak served MADD VA in that position for almost 17 years. In that time he headed a 6 year effort to draft and pass mandatory ignition interlock legislation in Virginia. Chris was also was responsible for guiding the development of the extremely successful victim stories based media campaign on TV, radio and Facebook for the last few years. Those are just 2 highlights. Anyone who has had contact with MADD VA knows and loves Chris. He was the face of MADD VA in the media and as the Director of our small office he was involved in every aspect of volunteer relations, education and outreach programming, law enforcement appreciation events, victim vigils and WALKS. He will be so greatly missed.

MADD VA will now be under the extremely capable supervision of Meghan Carter. Meghan, whose twin brother was killed in an impaired driving crash, has been with MADD for 12 years in August. She has experience in all aspects of managing MADD state offices, having served as Affiliate Executive Director and State Executive Director of MADD Missouri before becoming a Director of Field Operations. With the addition of Virginia, she now oversees 9 states in the field.

 

 

MADD Applauds Legislation that Will End Drunk Driving in America

MADD commends the House Energy and Commerce Committee for its leadership in advancing legislation which has the potential to eliminate nearly all drunk driving deaths on our nation’s roads.

“On behalf of hundreds of thousands of drunk driving victims nationwide, we thank Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (NJ), Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky (IL) and Representative Debbie Dingell (MI) for advancing groundbreaking legislation which calls for installation of advanced drunk driving prevention systems in all passenger vehicles,” said MADD National President Helen Witty.

Read more about the legislation here.

 

 

Virginia DMV Crash Facts

The 2019 VA DMV Crash Facts Publication has been released and is available on their website. It reflects that alcohol related:

• Crashes are down from 7592 in 2015 to 7048 in 2019*. (-544 crashes)
• Injuries are down from 4917 in 2015 to 4402 in 2019*. (-515 injuries)
• Fatalities are down from 2018 (278) but up since 2015 (242) to 264 in 2019*. (+24 fatalities)
• 827 people were killed in crashes in Virginia in 2019. 264 of those crashes were alcohol related = 31.92%
• 169 drinking drivers were killed - a 4.5% decrease from 2018
• Average BAC for tested drinking drivers - 0.149
  
  (* Determined using medical examiner data in addition to police records)

Localities with the highest incidences

 

We’re updating our MADD VA website to include classes, events and other opportunities to learn more about impaired driving and underage drinking prevention in Virginia. Check us out!