What Will YOU Lose? Features Real DUI Offenders in New Felony DUI Campaign
On Feb. 9, CDOT debuted What Will YOU Lose?, a new campaign aimed at reducing impaired driving in Colorado by featuring real DUI offenders speaking about what they’ve lost because of their DUI conviction. What Will YOU Lose? highlights real people, some of whom are actively serving time in the Colorado Department of Corrections, sharing their own personal stories and urging others not to make the same mistake.
A key focus of the campaign is the new felony DUI law. In 2015, Colorado enacted a law making an individual’s fourth DUI conviction automatically eligible for a Class 4 felony charge. The goal of the law is to greatly increase consequences for repeat DUI offenders and remove them from Colorado’s roadways. Some offenders that participated in CDOT’s campaign were charged as felons for driving impaired.
CDOT held a press conference in conjunction with the campaign launch, inviting the media to interview Andrea M., one of the DUI offenders whose story is featured. Andrea was charged with DUI Vehicular Assault and Vehicular Homicide after she killed another person as she drove home from an all-you-can-drink party in downtown Denver.
“I was just like any 25-year-old girl who would go out and party with friends… I had a good job and never thought that I would be the one to get a DUI,” said Andrea M. “It's tragic, humiliating and embarrassing that it had to take consequences like this to teach me the dangers of drunk driving. I hope my story will connect with someone similar. Take it from me—a DUI will stay with you forever.”
Saul, a 44-year-old man currently serving time in prison as a repeat DUI offender, is also featured in the campaign. “I’ve lost raising my daughters, their childhood, their growth.”
Travis, a former firefighter, lost the job he loved and “can’t do anything in a position of trust,” as he is now labeled as a felon.
A common thread among the DUI offenders who volunteered to share their stories for the campaign is an “it will never happen to me” mentality—an assumption many Coloradans are guilty of as well. But the fact is that impaired drivers do get caught—an average of 77 every day in Colorado. The What Will YOU Lose? campaign illustrates the severity of these consequences through the real experiences of fellow Coloradans who have lost everything because of their decision to drive while impaired.
