TAMPA, Fla. — Before you get behind the wheel on New Year’s Eve, Linda Unfried wants you to hear her story.
Decades after her sister Josie DiStefano Palomino was killed by a drunk driver in 1983, she’s still feeling the impact.
“He was going 80 miles an hour and hit her head-on. Flipped her car three times. Witnesses at the scene said she called out to me,” Unfried said.
“I just, I lost it. I mean, I completely lost it… We went to my mom’s house, and I can hear my mom screaming from outside. And those shrill screams that my mother had, I will never forget that either," she recalled.
This is the pain Tampa police are trying to prevent with Operation Countdown to Safety, ahead of New Year’s weekend.
Starting Friday, Tampa Police are stepping up patrols focused on targeting people who are driving drunk.
“We’ve made over 1,500 DUI arrests this year. Don't be the next one. With all the officers that we have out there, we will be in full force in making arrests. And I guarantee you, you don’t want to spend New Year’s Even in the back of one of our police cars,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said.
Unfried hopes drivers get the message.
“I want to hit my head against a wall sometimes because I’ve done this so long and people still are not listening,” she said. “People don’t get the simple message of don’t drink and drive. We’re not saying anything else. Drink if you want to drink. Have fun, party, but stay home or have someone else drive you.”
TPD is also warning people about celebratory gunfire. In recent years, stray bullets in Tampa Bay have landed in a church, grazed a baby, and hit a woman at Busch Gardens.