MADD Canada’s Campaign 911

911 Call Incident
Shared by MADD South Eastern New Brunswick Chapter
July 11, 2007

At the first of this week, July 9th,  I received a phone call at the MADD SouthEastern NB Chapter office in Moncton, from a concerned citizen. This lady had called the RCMP and reported a friend of hers that was drinking and driving. She had no response and felt the call fell on deaf ears. A few days later her friend had been at her house for a BBQ and was suppose to stay over night. After trying to reason with her very drunk friend, the friend left and the woman’s teenage daughter called 911 because she had seen our 911 campaign cards. All information was given, unfortunately the friend wasn’t stopped.

The concerned citizen called our office for advice because they felt their calls were being ignored. Our Chapter President Tony Mason got in touch with the person responsible for the 911 calls and explained the situation. The officer in charge was very helpful and played the tape of the 911 call back. He said a police car was sent out immediately when the call came in. The car went straight to the home of the impaired driver, but her car was already setting in the driveway. There was nothing they could do.

However the officer was familiar with MADD and our 911 Campaign and commented on the great job our organization is doing.

It’s nice to know the 911 campaign is really working.

The concerned citizen was called back and told that her call was taken seriously and given the circumstances of why her friend wasn’t stopped. She replied that the next time she knows her friend is out there driving impaired she will call 911 again and again until they get her off the roads.

I also mentioned to the concerned citizen how she could have been held responsible if her friend had crashed on her way home. Where she had been drinking at the BBQ and the host knew she had way too much to drink. This lady did not know that and was very grateful I told her and stated things were definitely going to change.  

By the way, the impaired driver in this case is a 71 yr old woman… who starts drinking in the early morning!

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