SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - The Hampden District Attorney’s Office annual “Stop the Swerve Event” will be held on Thursday night at the Basketball Hall of Fame. The event is aimed to educate you and your teens about distracted driving. Western Mass News spoke with the district attorney about how this event aims to keep you and your family safe on our roadways.

“Tragedies happen. They happen in an instant. It could be the two or three seconds that you look at a text message,” Gulluni said.

District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said last year in 2025 his office saw an uptick of fatal and very serious car crashes in the county, “So, these things are continuing to happen very often. Unfortunately, it involves avoidable things like distracted driving, drunk and drug driving.”

It’s not about hypothetical scenarios either, Thursday night, they’ll present a documentary that features family members of a young lady who passed away in a drunk driving accident back in 2023 near Interstate 91 in Longmeadow, she was 21 years old.

“You know, hearing about a case where there was a death and there was a tragedy. And I think it drives it home,” Gulluni said. The goal is to make sure that when you’re behind the wheel, you’re keeping yourself and those on the road safe.

Gulluni told us its also about educating parents on the risks of hosting parties for people under the age of 21 and drinking alcohol, “If we’re here for one night and people listen and they go on about their business and do the same things they’ve been doing, we’re not effective. We’ve got to make sure that young people, in particular, forming habits as they drive, remember or stop the swerve message.”

The D.A.’s office encouraged parents with young teens, especially those getting their driver’s license soon to attend Thursday’s event. Especially if that means somehow changing your mind about distracted driving, and saving your life

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