Congresswomen join Abbas family to stress deadly impacts of drunken driving

Earlier this month, the Honoring Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate (HALT) Drunk Driving Act was passed as part of a larger infrastructure bill.

While that bill will mandate drunken driving detection systems in new cars by 2026, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-12th District), Rashida Tlaib (D-13th District) and Haley Stevens (D-11th District), along with Rana Abbas-Taylor, who lost five loved ones due to a drunken driver, gathered at Dearborn Fire Station One on Monday to talk about the importance of not drinking and driving.

Abbas-Taylor said this is the toughest time of the year for her, as Christmas was so special to their family, and was the last time they spent time together before the fatal crash.

She thanked Dingell for her work on the bill, as well as Tlaib and Stevens, who were both close family friends from before the crash.

“Here’s the thing about drunk driving, unless you have been intimately connected to it, it’s hard to understand,” Abbas-Taylor said. “When you lose someone, it alters you. The ripple effect is endless.”