UPDATE:

Jada's Law is real. House Bill 264 has been introduced in the Louisiana Legislature and it carries her name.

Jada was a Louisiana girl. She was just a college student in Mississippi when her life was taken by a drunk driver who should never have been back on the road.

 Her crash did not happen here but Louisiana claimed her. And I love that about us. We take care of our own.

Louisiana has the opportunity to be the first state to set this standard. If this bill passes, it sends a message to every neighboring state that we will not keep releasing intoxicated drivers back onto our roads. We will not keep burying our children. Other states will follow Louisiana's lead and Jada's name will be the reason why.

This bill requires that anyone arrested for drunk driving cannot be released from custody until a safe-release clearance is made. They must be held a minimum of 8 hours if their blood alcohol concentration is still above the legal limit. They cannot bond out. They cannot walk out the door still drunk. Not until it is determined safe to release them.

That protection did not exist when we lost Jada.

HB 264 will be heard by the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice this Thursday April 23 at 10am. These are the people who decide if it moves forward. We need them to hear from you before that vote.

This is just the beginning. This will not be the last time we ask for your help. This is the start of a long process and we are going to need you every step of the way.

Please take five minutes and email every member below. 

Jada cannot speak anymore. We can. And we will.

Committee Member Emails:

Debbie Villio (Chair) — hse079@legis.la.gov

Vanessa LaFleur (Vice Chair) — hse101@legis.la.gov

Roy Daryl Adams — hse062@legis.la.gov

Doyle Boudreaux — hse039@legis.la.gov

Chad Boyer — hse046@legis.la.gov

Emily Chenevert — hse066@legis.la.gov

Vincent Cox — hse085@legis.la.gov

Bryan Fontenot — hse055@legis.la.gov

Dodie Horton — hortond@legis.la.gov

Alonzo Knox — hse093@legis.la.gov

Pat Moore — hse017@legis.la.gov

Jeff Wiley — hse081@legis.la.gov

Michael Echols — hse014@legis.la.gov

Phillip DeVillier — devillierp@legis.la.gov

Mike Johnson — hse027@legis.la.gov

***On Thanksgiving morning 2018, our family lost 23-year-old Jada Bright in a horrific head-on collision caused by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the interstate in Mississippi. The driver had been arrested two days in a row leading up to the crash. once for her fourth DWI while driving a rental vehicle, and again the very next day for public intoxication. Her BAC was .337 — over four times the legal limit. Despite this, she was released from jail while still intoxicated and allowed access back to a rental car. Hours later, Jada was killed along with two others. Families like ours are left shattered because the system failed to protect innocent lives.

Without change, this same failure will happen again. Repeat drunk drivers continue to slip through the cracks, released from jail while intoxicated, and rental companies are not always held accountable for securing vehicles tied to DWI arrests. Every time this happens, more innocent people are put at risk. Jada should be celebrating her 30th birthday this year. Instead, our family is still grieving and still in court. If laws remain the same, other families will experience the same devastation, preventable deaths that destroy futures.

We need Jada’s Law — a common sense safeguard that ensures no one is released from jail until their BAC is back to the legal limit, and that rental vehicles are immediately secured after a DWI arrest. This law would have saved Jada’s life, and it can save others. Jada’s death was preventable. Her life mattered. Now is the time to act — so that no other family spends Thanksgiving mourning instead of celebrating.