15th Annual 'Walk like MADD" 5k held in Walnut Creek

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD held its 15th Annual "Walk like MADD" 5k in Walnut Creek on Sunday morning. 

Victims and survivors of drunk driving crashes were joined MADD supporters at Civic Park for the annual walk to end impaired driving. The event is co-hosted by the California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division and self-driving tech company Waymo. 

For those who haven't been directly impacted by a drunk driving crash, it can be easy to think of these crashes as mere statistics. However, it's important to remember impaired crashes impact real people with families and lives that they left behind. 

Anne Archibald lost her husband, Kevin Archibald, to a DUI crash seven years ago. She says MADD helped her navigate the legal process and the grief of losing her life partner.

"My husband is Kevin Archibald. He was a software engineer here in the Bay Area, which sounds like an ordinary kind of person, but he was anything but ordinary. He was an extraordinarily kind and gentle and loving man. It's just...it's hard to sum him up," Anne Archibald told KTVU. "Kevin was someone who just had boundless optimism and sometimes it was to an annoying extent, but he really had so much optimism for the future."

A Mercedes was on display at the walk. The tail end was completely crushed by a drunk driver in a 2008 crash.  Authorities say a drunk driver on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was traveling over 100mph when he crashed into the Mercedes, taking the life of 21-year-old Scott Leister in 2008.

This year's walk is dedicated to Leister's memory.

Even with new safe ride options, police say impaired drivers are still leaving a trail of destruction behind them. MADD administrators hope to see those numbers decrease in what the organization calls a 100% preventable crime. 

Sunday’s walk also highlighted the impact drunk driving can have, not just on those involved in crashes, but also on the communities that are left to pick up the pieces.

One officer we spoke to says a DUI crash from 10 years ago still stays with him. The crash was fatal and involved a few 21 to 23-year-olds. 

When the officer arrived, he found the driver had been ejected from the car and was fighting for his life. The driver suffered severe head trauma, and the officer escorted the driver to the hospital to investigate the crash. 

"His life was saved in the short term, but ultimately he died while he was getting a CT scan. I was actually in the room waiting to have his blood drawn, because he was the driver, and he died right there. Seeing the impacts of his friends who were all intoxicated at the scene and their emotion, but then also being present when he was pronounced dead. I can still picture it," Lieutenant scott Moorhouse of the Walnut Creek Police Department said.