Law enforcement leaders and elected officials from across Western North Carolina gathered the day before Thanksgiving to remind people about the dangers of consuming alcohol and getting behind the wheel while also reaffirming their commitment to combatting drunk driving. 

It was supposed to be a routine public safety forum, and in a way, it was — the faces were familiar, the frustrations all the same. 

Elected officials, troopers, prosecutors and politicians once again took turns describing a justice system straining under its own weight, a system where clogged courts, half-hearted drug treatment, mental health failures and chronic underfunding blur the thin blue line between order and chaos. Their words carried a sense of urgency, tinged with exhaustion. 

Ellen Pitt has dedicated the last two and a half decades to combatting drunk driving in Western North Carolina, and the one of the latest fronts in that fight involves her quest to get courts to use continuous alcohol monitoring bracelets for defendants in “high-risk” DWI cases. 

A group of law enforcement officers, elected officials and concerned citizens is renewing its years-long effort to get a series of new laws through the General Assembly this year. 

The day before Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as “Blackout Wednesday,” a nod to the fact that it is one of the biggest drinking days of the year, a day when old friends and family are back in town with a holiday ahead to recover. 

Western North Carolina’s regional DWI taskforce has renewed its push to pass several new drunk-driving bills into law during next year’s long session in Raleigh. 

As the May 4 deadline for crossover approaches in the North Carolina General Assembly, a last-minute push has begun to get a series of bills to crack down on drunk driving to the House floor.