 
NORTHERN VIRGINIA Chapter Newsletter: August 2003
PRESIDENT'S LETTER
As you enjoy these very hot and often stormy summer months with
friends and family, please remember to designate a driver and be a
responsible host – don't let folks drink and drive!
As these same summer months give way to fall, our MADD Northern
Virginia Chapter staff will be working to deliver some new, innovative, and
exciting programs – keep watching the newsletters! Our Program
Director, Jennifer Cipolla, is enthusiastically driving new MADD youth
programs. We finished the school year with MADD multimedia presentations
(www.schoolassembly.org) in many area high schools. Cox Communications
generously sponsored numerous presentations and we sponsored several shows
as well. This program continues to grow! Contact the office if you
would like more information about the presentations or if you would like
to bring a multimedia presentation to your school. In addition, we
provided speakers and grant funding to help promote safe and alcohol-free
prom and graduation activities.
Jennifer is successfully expanding our youth outreach to include
community and teen centers as well. She is also actively partnering with
other organizations – government, religious, community, law enforcement,
non-profit and private – to further MADD's youth mission. The Virginia
ABC Sticker Shock program is just one example. In another role,
Jennifer works with our victim advocates, and she is partnering with local
government agencies and healthcare organizations to expand our victim
outreach. If you have an idea or would like to help, Jennifer would love
to hear from you!
Mike Green, Jennifer, and Noreen Dinndorf are all very active in our
work with local law enforcement and court monitoring. As I have said
before, the fight to stop drunk driving in Northern Virginia is waged on
many fronts. With so many new and expanding programs, our staff needs
your help and ideas! Please consider volunteering some time with MADD.
Your support will make a difference! Contact the office at 703-379-1135
or office@maddnova.org to volunteer!
Dan Ingram
VICTIM SUPPORT GROUP
Thanks to grant support from the USAA Foundation, we have a very
active Victim Support Group in Northern Virginia. The sessions are open to
anyone who has been injured by a drunk driver or who has lost a loved
one in a drunk-driving crash. Victim Support Groups are one of the most
effective tools to aid those whose lives have been altered by the
selfish actions of a drunk driver.
The sessions, which are facilitated by a licensed professional
counselor, are free to the participants and are part of MADD's mission of
providing support to the victims of drunk driving crashes. The group meets
monthly in Burke. To sign up or to get more information, please call
Sherry Platt at 703-978-3025.
CHAPTER MEETING
The next scheduled chapter meeting will be in the evening on September
3rd. Please call the office at 703-379-1135 for directions and to let
us know if you will be coming so that we can have sufficient materials
on hand.
VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
As we have done for the past several years, MADD Northern Virginia
staffed the Designated Driver booths at Vintage Virginia in June. This
public service project was made possible by product grants from Oasis
Water in Hume, Virginia, and the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Central
Virginia. Here's a big "Thanks" to our volunteers for their efforts –
especially to those who braved the torrential rains on Saturday.
We still need volunteers for the Designated Driver booths at the
Virginia Wine Festival on August 16 & 17. If you can help, please call the
office at 703-379-1135 to get onto the schedule.
VICTIM MEMORIAL BOARD
MADD has a new Victim Memorial Board. The board has already been used
at area High Schools, Teen Centers, the Police Awards Ceremony and
other events throughout Northern Virginia. We would like to give special
thanks to all the families who have loved ones on the memorial board and
to Mr. and Mrs. John Franceschini who helped put the board together. If
you would like to see the new Memorial Board please feel free to stop
by the office or contact us at (703) 379-1135.
EMAIL ADDRESSES
We are trying very hard to begin using more Email to communicate with
our members. During the past few months, we have sent out several
brief emails announcing such things as volunteer opportunities, upcoming
television events featuring MADD, and potential changes in MADD policies.
Because many of the items that we are now sending out in emails are
time critical, they will not be repeated in our newsletters or other
communications.
We hope that all of our members and supporters who have access to
email will want to get onto our email list. We will never sell or give
away our list and we will not inundate you with routine daily or weekly
messages. We will, however, send you those important items that you may
not see anywhere else.
To get onto the chapter's Email List, simply send an email to
with "Email List" as the subject line and your
name in the body of the message.
WHAT ARE ALCOPOPS?
Alcopops are flavored alcoholic malt drinks sometimes referred to as
malternatives or RTDs (ready to drink). The alcohol industry calls
these flavored beverages "low alcohol refreshers" even though many contain
5% alcohol, a higher concentration than many domestic beers. In many
cases the alcohol comes from distilled spirits, the same as is in
cocktails and other hard-liquor drinks.
These newer, sweeter alcoholic beverages may be luring more young
people to start drinking alcohol in larger quantities and at earlier ages.
The sweet taste appeals to young people. It doesn't taste like beer
or liquor and it's viewed as an easy way to get drunk without the bad
taste of beer. The alcohol industry refuses to admit any targeting of
underage drinkers. However, teens are 3 times as likely to be aware of
alcopops and nearly twice as likely to have tried them than their
parents.
Research shows that the age at which a person starts drinking does
have an impact on addiction. The NIAAA reports that kids who start
drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to become alcoholics
than those who wait until they're 21.
So how can we keep this "innocent" tasting alcohol out of the hands of
kids? Here are a few things that you can talk to your legislators
about doing:
Change the advertising rules: limit it in magazines and prohibit it
on radio and TV;
Require manufacturers to change the labeling so people know exactly
what they are drinking, that it is not a soft drink;
Permit alcopops to be sold only in ABC stores or where hard liquor
is sold, making it more difficult for underage drinkers to purchase.
Also, new federal rules are being considered that would better
regulate these drinks. To read the full text of the proposed regulations and
to learn where to comment, go to and scroll down to TTB Notice No. 4 – Flavored
Malt Beverages and Related Proposals.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S LETTER
I recently read a study "Drunk Driving: Seeking Additional Solutions"
which was prepared for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in May
2002. With the increase in alcohol-related fatalities that have occurred
in our area over the past few years, their comments are even more
applicable today. The recommendations below are some that are most urgently
needed in Virginia. As you read this, please consider contacting your
local legislators to get them to sponsor legislation adopting the model
law discussed below.
Virginia's DWI laws may not be quite as complicated and arcane as the
United States tax code, but they are not far behind. The public does
not understand them. For example, nationally, only 27% of driving-age
people know their state's BAC limit. Complex and inconsistent laws
make DWI enforcement, prosecution, and conviction more difficult. A
complete rewriting of Virginia's DWI laws would go a long way toward making
our roadways safer.
Fortunately, there now exists an up-to-date model against which to
compare Virginia's DWI laws. The National Committee on Uniform Traffic
Laws and Ordinances (NCUTLO), a membership organization including
representatives from 20 states, recently released a model state DWI law,
which has been incorporated into the Uniform Vehicle Code. The new model
law is the first serious revision to the Uniform Vehicle Code's DWI
laws since the 1940s. It addresses BAC testing, BAC test refusals,
higher penalties for high-BAC offenders, ALR hearing procedures, alcohol and
drug problem evaluation, and many other specific issues raised by
people familiar with DWI laws.
Reviewing and modernizing Virginia's DWI laws sounds like a
bureaucratic and tedious process rather than a simple active step to reduce drunk
driving. However, unless the DWI laws work well, the entire system of
enforcement and sanctions cannot hope to work well. Piecemeal fixes to
specific issues may create more problems than they solve. If the
devil is in the details, the DWI laws are the place where the details
begin.
An example of the intelligent thinking that went into the NCUTLO model
law is the section concerning BAC Test Refusal. The model law
establishes penalties for refusing to take the BAC test that are more severe
than the penalties for taking and failing the test.
In a highly publicized Maryland case a few years ago, a driver with 11
DWI convictions crashed into a stationary car, failed roadside sobriety
tests, and was arrested for DWI. He refused to take a BAC test. At
trial he was acquitted of DWI. The Maryland penalty for test refusal
was a 120-day license suspension, compared to the 1-year suspension and
48-hour jail penalty required for a second DWI offense.
BAC test refusal rates vary substantially by state. For example, in
Minnesota, where the penalties for test refusal can include up to 90
days in jail (and up to one year in jail for repeat offenders) the rate is
14%. In Illinois, the prescribed penalty is a 6-month license
suspension but offenders may receive a restricted license immediately and the
test refusal rate is 38%. Some states report refusal rates of up to
50% for drivers with prior DWI convictions.
If Virginia considers stiffer sanctions for drivers with high BAC
levels, as recommended by the various hard core drunk driver proposals and
by NCUTLO's model law, the problem of test refusals will become more
acute unless Virginia takes action. The model law recommends that the
penalty for test refusal should be double the penalty for test failure.
Virginia also should provide that a driver's refusal to take a BAC test
will be admissible in court on the issue of guilt.
If you want to help strengthen the DWI laws in Virginia, you can! Now
that your local representatives are out of Richmond, they are working
on their plans for the next legislative session. Please call them to
let them know that you expect them to take action to reduce drunk
driving.
Mike Green
VEHICLE DONATIONS NEEDED
Vehicle donations are a major source of funding for MADD Northern
Virginia. If you are considering a tax-deductible donation of your car,
truck, van, motorcycle, or boat on a trailer, please call us at
703-779-7534 or toll-free at 877-547-9612.
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