Mother of MADD leader edits, self-publishes daughter's journal

Millville, NJ

The diary was 600 pages. The book is 66 pages. The diarist, "spent years taking morphine and Valium." Coincidence? I think not.

Hopefully, she wasn't driving.

In the time between her untimely death in May 2000, and the car accident that changed her life nearly 20 years prior, Debbie Jerrell both accomplished and suffered.

Jerrell, who died at the age of 41, in Millville, had been studying to become a dental hygienist at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, when she sustained severe brain injury in a car accident involving a drunk driver. The next 20 years would be marked by efforts to "put her back together," according to her mother, Gertrude.

She suffered seizures from the near-constant pain, and spent years taking morphine and Valium, prescribed after hospital visits that would last for up to 30 days at a time in New York City and Philadelphia.

However, she was also a driving force in the community, founding the Cumberland and Salem Chapter of the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers in 1982. Jerrell later became the state chairwoman for MADD in 1994, opening the first state office for the organization in Vineland.

A recipient of the Cumberland County Bar Association's Liberty Bell Award for community service, Jerrell was offered personal congratulations from President Ronald Reagan, and was the only person Paul Hunsberger has ever interviewed more than once on his radio show "Off the Cuff."

Throughout all this, Jerrell kept a journal where she would pass the long hours spent inside various hospitals, chronicling her accident, recovery, and activities within the community.

No New Years DWI arrests in Vineland, New Jersey

Vineland, NJ

There also were no arrests in Vineland, NJ on New Year's for impersonating an officer sleeping in the trunk of his patrol car.

There were no drunken driving arrests in the city during the New Years holiday.

"I like to think that we got the message out," said Sgt. William Dare, supervisor of the Traffic Safety Unit. "There were several stops made by special DWI patrols and summonses were issued for other offenses but not drunken driving. I think the combination of increased patrols and the warnings we issued that drunken driving would not be tolerated kept our streets safe during the holiday."


In Millville, two drunken driving arrests were made during the New Year holiday. No other information about the arrests was available Wednesday from Millville police.

Driver arrested for DWI after sideswiping police car parked behind car on fire

Vineland, N.J.

Exactly how much attention must a driver pay to the road on New Year's Eve not to crash into a marked police car with its row of roof lights flashing, stopped behind a car in flames?

A state trooper investigating a car fire on Route 55 Monday night became a victim himself when his parked troop car was sideswiped by a driver who was allegedly intoxicated.

The accident happened at 10:37 p.m. Trooper Jeffrey Mazzoni had parked his 2006 Crown Victoria troop car behind the car which was on fire.

Harry M. Bauer, 27, driving a 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass, sideswiped the troop car.

The accident was investigated by Sgt. Edward Murphy, who charged Bauer with driving while intoxicated.