One Mother Continues to Fight in Honor of Her Son
By: Carol Levin
The word family is very important to me because the four of us were a family unit. We did everything together from sports, to music, school band, attended baseball games, and shared our hearts and joys with our boys, Jason and Todd. Being a dad and mom was so wonderful and I guess we always took that for granted.
Todd was our youngest son, and he was so dear and so kind to everyone he met. He loved life and lived it to the fullest. He had many close friends and always enjoyed his family and holidays with them. After college, Todd moved away to find a job and lived in Baltimore for a while. He worked for Arbitron and enjoyed his work there but got homesick and wanted to move back to Houston. His brother, Jason and his family, just moved from Lubbock and my mom at the time was also living in Houston. It was joyous to have all my family living in the same town.
Our lives all came to a drastic change in 2006 when Todd and the love of his life were killed by a drunk driver. They were very much in love. Todd was going to meet Raylynn’s brother to ask his permission to marry his sister. They all met for dinner where no alcohol was consumed. Todd and Raylynn were so happy and planning their future together. On their way home from dinner the drunk driver ran a red light and collided with Todd’s vehicle. He was driving and Raylynn was in the passenger seat. The drunk driver was driving 85 miles an hour in a 35 miles per hour zone and twice the .08 blood alcohol limit. He T-boned their car, causing significate injuries’ resulting in their death. Todd had two blows to the head and his heart was ruptured from the shock due to the speed of the collision. Todd died at the scene. Raylynn was completely mangled. They tried to get her to Ben Taub Hospital, but she died on the way. Two innocent lives lost to a drunk driver. The judge sentenced the drunk driver to 10 years for two lives tragically lost.
I started fighting hard and became Government Affairs Chair for MADD Southeast Texas. I assisted in passing legislation to help get drunk drivers off the road and safe lives. We passed the Texas Interlock Ignition bill in 2015. I am now on a committee that is dedicated in passing federal legislation with MADD in Washington D.C. We are so thrilled to announce we passed our 2021 bills in the Senate, that is the Halt Act and the Ride Act. We will be able to save more lives with this legislation. All part of creating a future of No More Victims!
Each year we have a special event, Walk Like MADD, to honor our loved ones that were killed by drunk drivers, impaired drivers, distracted drivers and those that speed. This is a big year for our team, as we are honoring Todd and Raylynn on the 15th anniversary of their death. We would like to invite you to join us September 25th for the Houston Walk Like MADD event. We are Todd’s Troopers named after Todd. I will close by saying my tag line #SAVEALIFE.