Barbara Dartez doesn’t pull any punches when she talks about the perils of drinking, driving, loss and grief.

“Drunk and drugged driving incidents are crashes, not accidents,” said Dartez. “They are the result of choice, not chance. Never say it’s an accident because that person decided to drink and drive and get behind the wheel.”

In 2008, 11,773 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. One of those deaths was the 24-year-old grandson of Dartez, Ryan Vezinot.

“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him,” she said. “The last thing he said to me is, ‘I love you, Granny.’”

Since her grandson’s death, Dartez has been active in coordinating Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) events, an opportunity for anyone who has lost anyone to a drunk driving crash to get together, remember loved ones and remind drivers who drink of the heartbreak that can be caused by their decision.

This year, instead of a MADD Walk, Dartez has announced a Candlelight Vigil on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 6 p.m. at the McNeese Baseball Intramural Field at the corner of Sale Street and Common Street. The public is invited to attend. Bleachers will be provided for seating.

She coordinates these events as a way to speak for her grandson and his mother, Julie.

Ryan was crossing the street after a college football game when he was hit by an SUV and died eight months later. A bystander said the vehicle was going at least 50 miles per hour without headlights at night, according to Dartez.

Dartez also helps give Gwen Olivier a voice. Olivier lost her son Jeremy, 31, in 2014. A drunk driver was traveling the wrong way on the Calcasieu River I-10 bridge.

Vance Charles and his wife Marcella, newly married, were killed October 2015 in a collision with a drunk driver who ran a stop sign.

In Florida, Kelly, 19; Nathan, 24; Elroy III, 28 and Elroy Jr., 51 were killed by a drunk driver after Kelly’s college graduation ceremony.

Carmen Guillot, 34, was a passenger on the back of a motorcycle. She was killed instantly when hit by a drunk driver.

“These are just a few of the victims,” Dartez said. “There are so many more.”

Fatalities caused by driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs have declined, and MADD has been active in supporting tougher penalties. Nevertheless, drunk driving claims thousands of lives on the road and accounts for more arrests than murder, rape, aggravated assault and burglary combined, according to the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as reported by safehome.org.

Dartez also communicates the loss and grief of drunk driving tragedy with individuals who have been ordered by court to attend Victim Impact meetings.

She said the majority of the class is made up of white men between the ages of 30 and 50. Most show up after work in work clothes.

Showing two films is part of the presentation. One is very graphic.

“I am there to remind them that behind every drunk and drugged driving statistic is a person whose life was full of family and friends, love and life, joy and laughter,” Dartez said.

When Ryan was hit, he was not killed. He was in a coma for eight months. The driver was not charged. When Ryan died, the driver was rearrested, but not indicted.

“That’s a problem,” Dartez said. “Some judges are lenient.”

She teared up during the interview. She tried working with a grief counselor after her grandson’s death.  She didn’t knock it because she realized that for others it might be helpful, but for her it wasn’t.

“I don’t think any person should tell me how to grieve or how long to grieve,” she said.

She has worked through the process of forgiveness, calling it a burden too heavy to carry any longer, and in her mind, she still hears Ryan’s voice from time to time.

“Something happened not too long ago, and I was upset about it and I heard him say, ‘Just let it go, Granny.’”

She did.

But she continues to work to remind others that drinking and driving is a decision that leads to 32 deaths every day, one person every 45 minutes. Those are not just  statistics on the MADD website. Those numbers represent people, she said. Dartez represents only one of the people whose lives were impacted by the death of her grandson and the countless others whose lives have been irrevocably changed because of drunk or drugged driving.