The license plate cover of Norma Tabish’s Jeep Cherokee reads, “In memory of J.J. (age 17),” and several buttons with her 17-year-old son’s picture on them hang from the rearview mirror.
Tabish was on South Campus Drive on Saturday as part of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) campaign to alert the community of the dangers of drunken driving.
“Hopefully [I] can make a difference in someone else’s life,” Tabish said.
To impress the message upon the minds of the U community, MADD displayed a vehicle that was totaled in a drunk-driving accident.
Tabish had posters with pictures of her son with his family and pictures of the smashed car from the accident J.J. Tabish was involved in. Tabish’s son died last October when he and a friend were driving under the influence down the canyon from Brighton. When they hit an S-curve, the driver lost control of the car and drove onto the left shoulder of the road. Their car hit a boulder at 95 to 105 miles per hour. Both boys were ejected from the car. J.J. slid for 130 feet at approximately 45 miles per hour. He was pronounced dead at the scene. “Don’t drink and drive, please,” Tabish told those who passed by her display going to and from Saturday’s U football game.
Onlookers expressed compassion at the pictures of Tabish’s son and thanked her for her efforts to dissuade the community from driving drunk.
“People have received us very well today. There have been a lot saying ‘thank you’ and they have been very impacted,” Tabish said.
According to MADD, 77 percent of fatal accidents between midnight and 3 a.m. involve alcohol.