‘Those lives matter’: Drunk driving survivor shares story ahead of Thanksgiving weekend

SEABROOK -- As she prepared to speak out against drunk driving this holiday season, Karen Bowen shed tears on Monday night. The Rochester woman lost her mother, her mother's sister and her granddaughter's husband's parents in crashes caused by intoxicated drivers. On Tuesday, she joined state police from New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts at a press conference in Seabrook warning on the dangers of drunk driving.

"When you see that cross alongside the road, those lives matter," Bowen said. Police announced they plan to step up patrols starting Thanksgiving eve until the end of the holiday weekend. They said the holiday season is notorious for impaired driving, and the public should expect to see police on the roads looking for signs of drunken or distracted driving.

New Hampshire has seen seven fatal crashes in the last five years on New Hampshire roads during the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to Tyler Dumont, strategic communications administrator for the New Hampshire Department of Safety. One of those occurred last November when a car rolled over at the Portsmouth traffic circle in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving. The crash resulted in ejecting multiple passengers, killing 21-year-old Drew Ceppetelli[1], a college student from Barrington, New Hampshire.

"Crashes like that are part of why we're having this conversation today," Dumont said. "We're trying to connect with people ahead of time, trying to encourage people to make the right decision."

Rochester woman shares her story

Bowen came to Tuesday's press conference after authorities reached out to Pat Rainboth of the organization Victims Inc.[2] Rainboth works with victims of drunken driving crashes and was asked if she could help find someone to share their story. Rainboth is passionate about combating drunken driving. She said she started her organization in 1986 after coming across a crash scene where a drunken driver struck a 14-year-old girl walking along the road.

"Out in the snow was a dying child for 25 minutes," Rainboth said. "Changed my life." Rainboth, also of Rochester, knew Bowen's husband from living in the same neighborhood. When Bowen lost her mother to a drunk driving crash, she grew closer to Rainboth as she prepared to cope with her new loss.

Bowen's mother, Georgiana, was killed in a head-on collision in Hampton on Route 101 on Sept.

20, 1986. Bowen described her disbelief when a police officer knocked on her door in Rochester to tell her that her mother had died. "I gave him a big hug and I said, 'Did you make a mistake?

It's mother that's in the hospital. It's not my mother that's dead,'" she recalled saying. "He reiterated it, and I almost fell on the floor. So, you don't believe that it really happened."

Bowen and Rainboth said one experiences a range of emotions, from sadness to rage, when a loved one is lost in a fatal car crash. Bowen said her mother's sister died in 1964 due to a drunken driver when she was 12. Later in life, she said, her granddaughter's husband's parents both died in a single-car crash.

Bowen said she never fully recovered from the pain of losing her mother, but she said she found ways to cope, like forgiving the man who caused the crash. She said speaking Tuesday reopened wounds, but she felt compelled to speak. "If it saves a life, it's worth every word," Bowen said.

Law enforcement to increase holiday patrols

State police will have five troopers designated for targeting intoxicated drivers throughout the holiday weekend, according to state police Lt.

Joseph Ronchi of Troop A. The officers will be funded by a grant, as is common throughout the year according to Ronchi. They will work alongside regularly scheduled officers, he said, to bolster the effort against drunk driving.

"Their sole objective is to go out, identify and eradicate impaired drivers," Ronchi said. The seven deadly crashes that occurred during Thanksgiving holiday periods from 2018 to 2022 in New Hampshire resulted in seven people dying and 13 being injured. Impairment was a factor in four of the seven crashes, police said.

Law enforcement who spoke included leaders from Massachusetts and Maine, who often cooperate with police in New Hampshire which borders their states. Capt. Kathryn Downey of the Massachusetts State Police said intoxication is a problem in her state.

She said there were 33 lives lost to fatal crashes in Massachusetts during the month of November last year, and 284 people were injured in crashes in that month alone. Downey said young adults ages 21 to 25 were the highest-represented group of fatalities on the road, while ages 24 to 35 were among those seriously injured. "People in the prime of their lives are most affected by crashes," Downey said.

Police advised that people take precautions when traveling this weekend. Ronchi said to plan ahead so people have enough time to reach their destinations, and he advised drivers not to crowd others on the road. Dumont said the goal this weekend is to have no arrests as a result of effective messaging ahead of the holiday weekend for people to stay safe.

If people choose not to, he said, they can expect law enforcement to be looking for them.

"If you don't make that smart decision, just know that all these law enforcement behind me, our teams, are going to be out there," Dumont said, "Looking for those drivers who decide to drive impaired."

References

1. ^ 21-year-old Drew Ceppetelli (www.seacoastonline.com)
2. ^ Victims Inc. (www.victimsinc.org)