TAMPA, Fla. — Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer but it also marks the deadliest time of year for teenagers in Florida. The state is behind an awareness campaign called “100 Deadliest Days” for young drivers to know the rules of the road and to never drink and drive.
One woman has made it her mission to drive that message home. Forty years ago, Josie DiStefano Palomino was killed by a teenage drunk driver. Her youngest sister, Linda Unfried, remembers she had just left their parents’ 55th wedding anniversary party in Tampa.
“She had a heart of gold,” Unfried remembers. “She would do anything for anybody.”
She made it her mission to honor Josie with action, quickly starting the first chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the Bay area.
“Maybe this story will touch someone's heart,” she says. “They won't [drink and drive.]”
Memorial Day kicks off the “100 Deadliest Days” for teenage drivers, between now and Labor Day.
According to Florida Highway and Motor Vehicles, there were nearly 20,000 crashes involving teenage drivers during the same period last year, including 68 fatal crashes that killed 83 people.
“It's likely that teenage drivers, they are going to speed and they're going to drive distracted,” Florida Highway Patrol Col. Gary Howze said.
Even before Memorial Day, Linda is shocked knowing there were more than 50 DUI arrests made in Hillsborough and Tampa just this past weekend.
“It made me cry to think that my kids, my grandkids, my great-granddaughter, they're all out there on these highways,” Unfried says.
With Linda’s life mission now passing down to future generations, she's comforted knowing that her sister's legacy lives on with a pledge not to drink and drive offered to middle school students in Hillsborough County:
We still remember that day when one's life took another away,
As it left those who were close in dismay. Now we take a pledge.
We came together to take a stand, to make sure lives aren't taken wrongful from this land.
And together we came up with a plan. Now we take a pledge.
We're here to stop those who drive under the influence, so those who are close don't have to say goodbye.
We're here, so remember her life, and now we take Josie's Pledge.
We still remember that day when one's life took another away.
Hoping Josie will touch one life,
We're here to stop those who drive under the influence, to save another,
So those who are close don't have to say goodbye.