Buchanan County deputy receives MADD 'Century' award

Dec. 11—Removing drunk drivers from the roads is personal for one Buchanan County Sheriff's Office deputy.

Zackary Craft's father was killed by someone driving impaired, and he aims to prevent a similar tragedy from happening to another family. He takes the mission so seriously that he has been honored by a national group.

Craft was awarded the Mothers Against Drunk Driving "Century" award, which is given when a law enforcement officer removes more than 100 impaired drivers from the roadways in a single year. Craft stopped 127 people from doing so.

"Mothers Against Drunk Driving is at the forefront of ending impaired driving throughout the country, especially here in Missouri," Craft said. "Impaired driving is a big deal to me because my father was killed by an impaired driver when I was 7 and it led me to this line of work."

Craft was honored alongside other officers, including Missouri State troopers Chris Kottwitz, who made 123 DWI arrests, and Robbie Allee, who stopped 111 people.

"Really it's all of our goals to end impaired driving," he said. "One of the most obvious cues is when people cross the center line or cross the fog lines. That's a good enough sign to make contact with a driver and sort through different evidence to determine if that person may be impaired or not."

Crafts says preventing drunk driving-related crashes will continue to be a top priority for him.

"Going through what my siblings and I went through when we were little, it weighs heavy on someone's heart," he said. "Working in the field I'm in now, I try to stay in contact with those families who are impacted by the same situation because it's difficult to get through."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one person is killed every 39 minutes by an impaired driver, and local officers are doing their part to drive that number down.

The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office, the highway patrol and other law enforcement agencies will be increasing patrols over the holidays to prevent drunk driving accidents.

Jenna Wilson can be reached at jenna.wilson@newspressnow.com.