Group discusses hazards of drunk driving, potential new laws
At last Wednesday’s event, volunteers, elected officials, law enforcement officers and families who lost loved ones to drunk drivers all spoke. Kyle Perrotti photo
The day before Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as “Blackout Wednesday,” a nod to the fact that it is one of the biggest drinking days of the year, a day when old friends and family are back in town with a holiday ahead to recover.
An event held on that day last week at the Historic Haywood County Courthouse aimed to draw attention to the risks of drunk driving.
WNC DWI Taskforce head Ellen Pitt spoke first at the event.
“Many alcohol vendors do special promotions like buy-one get-one-drinks,” she said of Blackout Wednesday.
In response to Blackout Wednesday, Pitt and the other speakers, which included law enforcement officers and elected officials, promised that there would be zero tolerance for drunk driving, that night and every other night.
To make a more visible statement, that evening, law enforcement across the region parked their patrol cars at the sites where people were killed or injured in vehicle collisions where alcohol or excessive speed were a factor and ran their blue lights while observing a 10-minute moment of silence.
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Ellen Pitt heads up the WNC DWI Taskforce. Kyle Perrotti photo
In addition, on Sunday, Dec. 1, many of those same people gathered at the Maggie Valley town pavilion for a remembrance of those who lost their lives that featured both a slideshow of the victims and a table on which sat a candle for each person.
“That table was full of candles,” Pitt said in a Dec. 2 interview with The Smoky Mountain News.
REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS
At one point, a couple of relatives of victims who lost their lives in crashes caused by drunk drivers spoke. One was Jean Dodson-Harris, who talked about the death of her sister, Susie Campbell, brother-in-law, Tyler, and 8-year-old nephew, Miles, who lost their lives only six months ago on Memorial Day when an SUV driven by 25-year-old Jordan Porter ran a red light going almost twice the speed limit and T-boned their vehicle.
“This person should have never been behind the wheel of a car,” Harris said from atop the courthouse steps, flanked by her visibly emotional father and stepmother. “It’s unacceptable.”
During an interview with SMN on Nov. 30, Harris, who lives in Forest City, talked about just how spectacular of a person her sister was. She beamed with pride as she recalled how Susie came into her life when her father and stepmother adopted her from China. Susie was born to a family in that country that chose not to keep her because of the infamous “one-child” policy. Susie was found under a bridge, brought to an orphanage and put up for adoption.
When she came to the United States to live with her new family, she was 3 years old, and Harris was already in her mid-twenties. Although at the time of her death Susie, then 29, lived in the Raleigh suburb of Garner a few hours away, she and Harris remained close.
“Susie and I were so close because she grew up with my children,” Harris said.
Early in the afternoon on Memorial Day, Harris was sitting on the back porch with her husband getting ready for a cookout when she received a call from her stepmother, who was so distraught she could barely get the words out. There had been a wreck. Tyler was killed immediately, and Susie and Miles were en route to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Ultimately, doctors were unable to control Susie’s internal bleeding, and she passed away on the operating table; Miles was taken off life support a couple of days later after several doctors’ independent analysis determined he would likely never regain consciousness.
It was hard for Harris to talk about the trauma the whole family endured with the sudden, tragic loss, but one memory sticks out as being most devastating — the day that she, her father, her stepmother and her brother went to the morgue to see Susie. Harris, a registered nurse, had seen her fair share of human carnage, but she still has nightmares about that exact moment.
“It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever laid eyes on,” she said. “You’re not supposed to see a loved one like that.”
Harris fell into a sort of fugue state. There was a closed-casket memorial service, but she can’t remember anything from that day other than viewing the bodies with her family beforehand. While she may never get over losing a loved one, she also talks with extreme reverence about the kinds of people Susie, Tyler and Miles were. Like her older sister, Susie became a registered nurse and was enthusiastically exploring different fields trying to find her niche.
That ambition, that heart of service, was gone just like that.
Susie Campbell, her husband, Tyler, and her son, Miles, had their lives taken on Memorial Day when a drunk driver ran a red light and collided with their vehicle. Donated photo
“These were the three most loving, caring, compassionate individuals that you would ever want to know in your life,” she said. “Susie never got to figure out what she really wanted to do and experience that. Miles never got to experience so much.”
With that in mind, Harris has become committed to preserving their memory and also raising awareness around the dangers of drunk driving. In June, Susie’s coworkers began a new nonprofit called Nurses Against Drunk Driving. Pitt helped the nonprofit through the early stages of its formation, and since then, Harris has been an active member, doing what she can to promote its message.
“I want to thank the founders of NADD for doing this, for never forgetting and always fighting for my family and making a difference,” she said.
UPCOMING LEGISLATION
One of the speakers at the event last Wednesday was Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain), who pledged that victims would not be forgotten as he renews his quest to get a host of legislation passed in the General Assembly that he said will keep drivers safer on North Carolina roads.
As a member of the DWI taskforce, Clampitt has been a leading voice in Raleigh in the effort to combat DWIs. He sang the praises of the taskforce members, many of whom were on hand last Wednesday.
In the past, Clampitt has introduced five bills related to drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol, including one that would allow the use of portable roadside breathalyzer results for probable cause and another that would lower the legal blood alcohol content limit from .08 to .05.
Come January, he will aim to introduce those five bills under one larger piece of legislation called the Sober Operator Act of 2025. It will also include two new elements not before seen that are tangentially related to the issue. One would require for District Court sessions, where many DWI cases are heard, to be recorded as Superior Court currently is. The other would create an easily accessible database where members of the public could see stats related to DWI charges and convictions, as well as other relevant case information like reasons for dismissals or suppression of evidence. Pitt said such a database is important for several reasons.
“It helps you understand where to direct resources,” she said.
Harris said she will be happy to see those kinds of bills become law and that if even one family is spared the grief hers has suffered, changes are needed. For now, she still grieves, still awaits closure, although the process of trying the case against Porter will likely take years.
Each Sunday, she visits the gravesites of her sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Recently, she brought along her infant grandson, Beckham, who has been a ray of hope for the future, to celebrate a somber occasion — Miles’ ninth birthday.
“No one should ever have to celebrate a child’s birthday at their gravesite,” Harris said. “This should never happen to another family ever.”
