By Cory Kefauver
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Gov. Larry Hogan attended the Maryland Remembers ceremony on Tuesday to pay tribute to those who lost their lives due to impaired drivers.
Hogan announced that Maryland will receive a grant from the Governors Highway Safety Association to encourage alternatives to driving under the influence by providing $10 rideshare credits to Maryland residents during the holiday season.
Hogan spoke about initiatives his administration is working to put into place to combat impaired driving and the progress that has been made to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road.
“We’re partnering with the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety program to test alcohol detection technology that’s now installed in state owned vehicles,” Hogan said. “Together we truly are making progress. Last year we saw a decrease in impaired driving fatalities. Even one death is one too many, which is why we must continue to tell the stories of those that we’ve lost.”
Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Greg Slater also spoke at the event. Slater said that in April 2020 Maryland joined the National Governors Association Learning Collaborative to strengthen data on fighting against impaired driving.
“Taking part in that learning collaborative has enabled our state to share best practices, to learn innovative and evidence-based programs and practices to help us continue to address the issue of impaired driving,” Slater said. “The outcomes from that learning collaborative include an improved and expanded data system to track impaired driving offenders from arrest to adjudication, a process to increase judicial acceptance of drug recognition experts’ evidence in the absence of blood alcohol tests, and a program to better educate prosecutors.”
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) said on Facebook that while the event is positive, it is tragic that such event are needed.
“As always it was a beautiful event,” MADD said through its social media feed. “However, it is bittersweet for our victim services team to see the many survivors impacted by this 100% preventable crime.”
The ceremony is held before the holidays each year to raise awareness about the uptick in impaired driving around the holidays. Last year more than 1,300 Marylanders were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
“No one should ever get behind the wheel of a car and drive impaired,” Hogan said. “We must continue to tell the stories of those we have lost, and we must continue doing everything in our power to save lives and to prevent future tragedies.”