RICHMOND, Va. -- As Labor Day approaches, Virginia is ramping up to crack down on drunk driving.
For Susan VanDenburgh, when thinking about her dad, her mind takes her back to the water when she was younger.
"Us being out on the boat was my strongest memory of him," VanDenburgh said.
It's a memory she's had to return to for the past eight years instead of making new ones because her dad, Jack VanDenburgh, was hit by a drunk driver in Hanover County in 2014.
"The guy that hit him already had three DUIs. He had another one pending in Louisa County that he hadn't even been to court for when he hit my dad," VanDenburgh said.
Her father would spend two months in a burn unit, including his 75th birthday, before he passed.
"It was just its own special hell to see somebody that you love wrapped up looking like a mummy," VanDenburgh said.
Now, she shares her story as a Mother Against Drunk Driving volunteer in the hopes of preventing another family from having to experience the pain she did.
"It was horrible. I mean, my life turned upside down with one telephone call," VanDenburgh said.
She's not alone in this tragic experience.
In Virginia, there were 6,624 alcohol-related crashes in 2020. That number increased to 6,749 in 2021.
A new record was set for the average blood alcohol content of drivers who were tested, whether in a crash or pulled over. The average number, .155, is near twice the legal limit.
However, in that same period, fatalities dropped from 272 to 247.
"If you're old enough to drink, act like it," Governor Glenn Youngkin said at an event.
On Thursday, Youngkin joined state agencies and non-profits to kick off the 21st year of an effort to crack down on drunk driving in the Commonwealth with the slogan "drive sober or get pulled over".
"It's a lot more than a slogan. It's a life of a Virginian that can be put at risk," Youngkin said.
Along with a new PSA, police around the state will conduct increased patrols and checkpoints around the holiday weekends, including over 400 around Labor Day.
"This year, we have 92 law enforcement agencies participating in the first wave of Virginia's Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign," Col. Gary Settle, a superintendent with the Virginia State Police, said.
As for VanDenburgh, she said that in this age of rideshare, there's no excuse for drunk driving and she will continue to fight the thing that took away who she calls her best friend.
"That's not going to change for me, but if I can change that, keep that from happening to somebody else, then I've done something worthwhile," VanDenburgh said.
