A Texas mother teamed up with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Texas Department of Transportation for ‘Plan While You Can.’
The campaign targets young adults and encourages them to make a plan before they go out and drink this Spring Break.
Kandi Wiley lost her daughter, Janakae Sargent, after a drunk driving accident in 2006. Sargent had agreed to be a designated driver for friends on that November night, but she was hit by a drunk driver on the access road of Loop 289.
“I miss her terribly,” Wiley said. “And I can’t do anything to bring her back, but if I can do something, say something, bring awareness, bring a face and a name, and it saves one life then that is one family that doesn’t have to start my journey.”
Wiley said she has been a spokesperson for the agencies for more than a decade and had the number of drunk driving crashes decrease, but that trend would take a turn.
“When I first started 10 years ago it was 2 in 3 people would be affected by a drunk driving crash in their lifetime,” Wiley said. “It decreased to 1 in 3, sadly we are back up to 2 in 3.”
Sargent said the campaign is focused on more than drunk driving, they want to stop impaired driving of any kind.
“The one who doesn’t drink,” Wiley said. “The one who doesn’t have that first. There is no safe time to wait, sober is sober, and impairment starts with that first. It also, as far as not just alcohol, prescription drugs, legal drugs, over the counter medications, or illegal street drugs, but if they’ve one-don’t operate anything with a motor.”
