Video: Local Resident Has Heartfelt Warning About Dangers Of Drinking And Driving

[jwplatform py4qB74R]

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WCBI) — As the Labor Day holiday approaches, local and state law enforcement are encouraging motorists to think twice before drinking alcohol and getting behind the wheel.

As WCBI’s Allie Martin reports, a lunchtime program in New Albany featured local law officers, and a woman who knows first hand how drinking and driving destroys innocent lives.

Wherever she goes, Sherrel Clark has a message and a warning for those who drink and drive.

“The more you do it, the more you get away with it, the more you have a mind frame of, ‘I’m the good drunk driver, I’ve never had a wreck I’ve never hit anybody, I’ve never hurt anybody.’ And that’s not the case,” Clark said.

Clark knows. In 1988, her brother was killed by a drunk driver, and in 2006, her 20-year-old daughter, who was pregnant with twins, died when her car was hit by a drunk driver.

She shared her story with law officers from 9 counties, as the annual Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign is about to begin.

Clark says the pain of losing four family members to drunk drivers does not ease with time.

“Once the ground is settled and the grass is growing, headstones in place. I live with it everyday. I wake up with it in the morning and  it’s with me all day long, it’s the last thing I think about at night sometimes,” she said.

Sherman Police Chief Joel Spellins helped organize the lunchtime program and says while there will be more officers on patrol during the upcoming Labor Day holiday,  the emphasis is not on writing tickets.

“We’re trying to change, attitudes and behavior in people so they won’t get out. It’s more of a deterrent than it is ticket writing,” Chief Spellins said.

It is a message Chief Spellins and other law officers want the public to heed, not only for the upcoming holiday, but all through the year.

The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign starts Aug. 15 and runs through Sept. 1.