Winter 2011 Smart, Safe & Sober Newsletter
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2010 John T. Hanna Awards Presented for Outstanding Performance in the Area of Traffic Safety
Hampton Roads, VA – The Annual John T. Hanna Awards, presented by Drive Safe Hampton Roads, recognized eleven local individuals and organizations for outstanding performance in the area of traffic safety. The 2010 recipients included police officers, a cab company, a designated driver service, a driver’s education teacher, and several other outstanding individuals from the area.
The awards were presented on December 7, 2010 at 12:00pm during a luncheon held at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #8 in Virginia Beach.
John T. Hanna, the namesake of the awards, is widely known in the Commonwealth for his years of service dedicated to improving traffic safety in Virginia. Hanna served as the Deputy Commissioner for Transportation Safety at the state Department of Motor Vehicles and worked in the traffic safety field for more than 60 years.
Drive Safe Hampton Roads is a regional coalition comprised of safety advocates from local law enforcement and fire safety divisions, corporations, the military, state, city and county government, and other individuals. For over 22 years, Drive Safe Hampton Roads has been dedicated to preventing crashes, injuries, and fatalities on the region’s roadways.
The awards were given in the following categories: The Martin H. Schlosser Award for Traffic Safety Activism; Employer Safety; Impaired Driving Prevention; Law Enforcement Initiatives; Legal; Media Awareness; Occupant Protection; Public Transportation Safety; Pupil Transportation Safety; and Youth Traffic Safety. The Lifetime Achievement in Transportation Safety Award will also be presented to Lillian DeVenny of Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving.
The 2010 John T. Hanna Award Recipients are as follows:
The Martin H. Schlosser Award for Traffic Safety Activism:
The Military/Civilian Transportation Safety Workshop Executive Planning Committee is the recipient of this newly re-named award. The Military/Civilian Transportation Safety Workshop has successfully completed 41 years of educating participants in areas of safety, engineering, and enforcement, as well as giving participants a voice in Virginia's legislative process. The process of developing the Workshop is continuous and takes the devotion of each volunteer committee member to ensure the success of what is known as the longest running transportation workshop in the nation. This year, the committee, made up of ten members, worked to commemorate the 42nd year of the Workshop and reflected on the many contributions it has made to the safety of the citizens of Virginia.
Employer Safety:
E.V. Williams, Inc. is the recipient of this award. Driver Improvement Training is a priority at E.V. Williams. Every employee that becomes part of the E.V. Williams family goes though safety training. Their safety motto is “Promoting Safe Driving Practices Will Help Protect Our Most Valuable Investment – Our Employees”. Over the last year, there have been no crashes or traffic violations involving any of their 175 employees. They also have an in-house training program that employee’s can remotely access that provides learning management systems on safety programs. E.V. Williams is currently developing a company-wide no cell phone use policy in their vehicles.
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Impaired Driving Prevention:
Yellow Cab of Hampton is the recipient of this award category. This company has driven thousands of impaired drivers home over the last 20 years. Since 1992, they have partnered with both the Navy and Langley’s SafeRide Home Programs. Yellow Cab of Hampton taxis augment the program when no volunteers are available by offering delayed-payment rides for the intoxicated military service person and their dependents. In addition to late-night bar and club pick-ups, SafeRide Home also assists stranded motorists. Yellow Cab of Hampton has offered their taxis for designated driver posters and promotes use of designated drivers and being responsible in their advertisements.
Law Enforcement Initiatives:
Each year, thousands of innocent people are killed and/or injured due to the lawless actions of impaired drivers. Officer Delores Millington, of the Chesapeake Police Department, is this year’s recipient for the Law Enforcement category. She has elected, by her own choice, to be assigned to the midnight shift for nine years. Upon assignment to her current position in the Traffic Enforcement Unit, she is still conducting DUI enforcement, sobriety checkpoints, and saturation patrols. Officer Millington recognizes that impaired driving is a complex arrest and makes every effort to assist and guide other officers to successful arrests and convictions. She also became an Intoxilyzer Operator to bolster her efficiency in impaired driving arrests. From 2003 to September of 2010, she has arrested 407 impaired drivers. She has made 44 DUI arrests from October 1, 2009 to September 15, 1010. Between 2003 and 2009, she was recognized by both the Chesapeake Police Department and Mothers Against Drunk Driving for her efforts to save lives. This achievement is especially noteworthy because Officer Millington is not assigned to a special DUI enforcement squad.
Legal Category:
Volunteers for the Victim Impact Panels. In the Hampton Roads area, the over 8,000 people convicted of Driving Under the Influence during the period October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010 were required to attend a victim impact panel in addition to the intervention and probation services provided by their respective local Alcohol Safety Action Programs (ASAP). The victim impact panel class is designed to share with ASAP program clients the impact that drunk driving has had on persons either directly affected or those who have had a family member injured or killed by a drunk driver. These victim impact panels are powerful testimonies provided to the audience by volunteers, with the hope that their message will prevent those hearing it from drinking and driving ever again. These classes are offered monthly on both the Peninsula and Southside to over 660 clients, their family members and friends. The volunteers who provide these testimonies, through their personal stories give of themselves month after month, even though the memory of their experience is extremely painful to recount. Without the volunteers nominated to receive this award, these services would not be possible. These volunteers include MADD Virginia Peninsula Chapter members Dick Jackson, Irene Blasko and Peninsula volunteers Jeremy Markle and Newport News Police Sgt. J.D. Jewell. On the Southside, these volunteers include MADD Southside Community Action Site members Bob & Kaye Walsh and David & Susan Newton.
Media Awareness:
Sondra Woodward, the morning announcer for WHRV is the award recipient for this category. WHRV is the regional public news/talk radio station in Hampton Roads. While most every other radio station runs reports that are originated in the Washington, DC area and are ‘canned” for use, Sondra originates the traffic reports herself, through monitoring of traffic cameras and reports for VDOT and local law enforcement as well as the occasional listener. One of the most impressive things that Sondra does is that she frequently gives traffic safety tips during these reports. She reinforces the “Move Over” law and reminds motorists to turn on their headlights when they have windshield wipers on. She shares safe
following distances and alternate routes during highway incidents. She asks her listeners not to use cell phones while driving. She focuses much of her tips on traffic safety prevention. Sondra’s contribution to traffic safety is her constant and consistent traffic safety reports, which in turn lead to decreased crashes on our roadways.
Occupant Protection:
James City County Police Department. In March and June of this year, James City County Police Department (JCCPD) teamed up with Chick-Fil-A restaurant to promote seatbelt use with a program called “Click It for Chicken” aimed at students at local high schools. JCCPD conducted Click It or Ticket (CIOT) school displays during lunch periods that promoted seatbelt awareness and safety. They also held a child safety seat inspection station.
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Annually, JCCPD puts on an alcohol awareness program aimed at high school students in an effort to prevent underage drinking as well as underage drinking and driving. Since this program started, alcohol-related crashes for ages 21 and under in James City County have been on a decline, averaging from 9.4 crashes from 2002 through 2006 to 4.6 crashes from 2006 to 2010.
Pupil Transportation Safety:
MetroScoot, LLC. MetroScoot is a unique Designated Driver Service getting you and your vehicle home safe since February 2009. Clients call into a dispatcher 25 minutes ahead to request service. One of the MetroScoot drivers meets the client at their vehicle and then drives the intoxicated client and their vehicle home. MetroScoot also works to promote traffic safety through volunteer efforts aimed at promoting safety and encouraging the use of designated drivers. MetroScoot owners have participated in numerous educational safety conferences, partnered with community businesses and the military to promote responsible drinking, donated designated driver services at community benefit events, and provided rides free of charge on occasions when citizens have been unable to pay to get themselves home safely. Since opening day, MetroScoot has delivered more then 11,240 individuals home safe traveling more then 47,200 miles in client’s vehicles! There is no way to quantify just how many thousands of innocent lives have been saved by their efforts.
Pupil Transportation Safety:
Sue Dixon, a veteran driver education teacher from Deep Creek High School, is the recipient of this category. This is her 36th year in education and her 24th year at Deep Creek teaching driver education. Sue challenges her students to become safer drivers using creative teaching methods in her daily lessons to instill traffic safety lessons for all of the students. Along with the state driver education curriculum, Ms. Dixon stresses units on proper seatbelt use, drunk and drugged driving prevention, and driving distracted prevention. She has been in charge of the Get It Together Seat Belt Challenge at the high school for 10 years. For the past two years, Sue has been involved with the Hampton Roads Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Program and the Distracted Driving Awareness Day. Sue Dixon and her students make a positive difference at Deep Creek High School creating bonds and friendships while sharing knowledge and improving driver safety.
Youth Traffic Safety:
Master Police Officer Robyn Watson, Virginia Beach Police Department, School Resource Officer for Green Run High School. Since taking over as the Green Run High School SRO in 2007 due to the death of her colleague, MPO Watson has dedicated herself to promoting traffic safety to the entire school. She also encourages the students to partner with area traffic safety groups. In 2008, she re-introduced the Get It Together Seat Belt Challenge to the school. Due to her incredible involvement in pushing the seat belt message, Green Run High School won GIT that year. She has been a driving force behind the Green Run High School Youth of Virginia Speak Out (YOVASO) Club, a teen driving club, the first in Virginia Beach. Using classroom techniques, after school programs, a step-team demonstration at football games, as well as costumes and other media, MPO Watson has constantly advocated empowering the students with the positive messages of safety.
The Lifetime Achievement in Transportation Safety Award:
Lillian DeVenny (Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving-VODD). In 1981, Mrs. Lillian DeVenny, along with 2 others, founded the first Citizens’ group in Virginia to fight against drunken driving, called Many Against Drunk Driving, after her only daughter was killed in a 1979 crash attributed to drunken driving. In 1982, Lillian appeared on C-SPAN where her message regarding drinking and driving was carried by affiliates to over 10 million homes throughout the US and Puerto Rico. In 1983, the organization underwent a final name change to “Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving” to establish a closer identity with the state.
Mrs. DeVenny has provided resource information countless times to the Governor, General Assembly, and Senate. She has reported on legislative issues surrounding impaired driving and presented to conferences as far away as Puerto Rico. She even briefed President George H.W. Bush on making uniform laws against drunken driving.
In 1991, Mrs. DeVenny was appointed to the Commission on the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program and served 14 years in that capacity. She has served on the Governor’s Task Force To Combat Drunk Driving, chaired the Southeastern Task Force on Drunk Driving, is a winner of the Governor’s Transportation Safety Award, and is the recipient of numerous community service awards.
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Presently, she serves on the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Commission Regional Advocacy Council. She continues to be an active member of Drive Safe Hampton Roads as the Steering Committee Legislative Liaison. In October 2011, VODD will celebrate 30 years of advocating against drunken driving. Amongst her friends, Lillian is fondly known as “One Little Steel Magnolia” due to her continued, unyielding presence encased in a package of a sweet and caring persona, always addressing the issues of drunken driving.
For more information: www.drivesafehr.org or call (757) 498-2562.
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