13th Annual Move With MADD 5K Brings Together Survivors, Community for Kern County’s Fight Against Impaired Driving

Kern County is one of the worst counties in the nation for DUI crimes. On Sept. 19, Bakersfield gathers for the 13th time to do something about it.

In 2025 alone, the Bakersfield Police Department recorded 788 DUI arrests, 443 DUI crashes, and 14 DUI fatalities within city limits. The California Highway Patrol’s Bakersfield division added another 2,224 arrests and 27 fatalities on top of that. The Kern County District Attorney’s Office is currently prosecuting more than 1,600 misdemeanor DUI cases and more than 70 DUI felonies.

Those numbers are not reported here to generate alarm. They are reported here because they are the reason Bakersfield has gathered every year since 2014 for what has become one of the most meaningful community events in Kern County: Move With MADD.

The 13th Annual Bakersfield Move With MADD 5K takes place Saturday, Sept. 19, at Park at River Walk. The event brings together DUI crash survivors, grieving families, law enforcement officers, first responders, community leaders, and supporters of every background for a morning of ceremony, remembrance, and action. The Law Office of Chain | Cohn | Clark is a presenting sponsor of this year’s event, alongside Valley Strong Credit Union.

“Events like Move With MADD matter because they bring the people who have been hurt, the people who are working to prevent it, and the people who care about this community into the same space,” said Matt Clark, managing partner and attorney with Chain | Cohn | Clark. “That visibility creates accountability. And accountability saves lives.”

Thirteen Years + This Year’s Victim Voice

The first Bakersfield Walk Like MADD was held in 2014. In the years since, thousands of Kern County residents have participated, and the event has raised nearly $1 million to support local DUI crash victims, fund educational programs in local schools, support DUI checkpoints, and sustain MADD Kern County’s broader prevention programs.

That sustained financial investment represents something more than a fundraising total. It reflects what community commitment to a cause looks like over more than a decade, year after year, regardless of whether the news cycle is paying attention to the DUI problem or not. The families who return to this event year after year, many of them carrying losses that never fully heal, are the reason the effort continues.

Every Move With MADD ceremony includes a victim statement, a moment when the human cost of impaired driving is given a face, a name, and a voice. This year, that voice belongs to Jovon Dangerfield.

Jovon is a Bakersfield community advocate, youth mentor, and executive director of TYM4Change, Transitional Youth Mobilizing for Change. He is known across the city as a connector, a mentor, and a man who has spent decades pouring into the lives of young people in a community he loves. He is also a father who lost his son to a drunk driver.

Cameron Dangerfield was 20 years old, traveling home from a work trip to Sacramento, when a repeat DUI offender crashed into him on Interstate 5 in Kern County and killed him. Cameron had served as his school’s class president, attended Fresno State, and was excelling in a sales career while still giving back to his community. His father Jovon described him as someone who had his hopes and dreams fully mapped out, someone who talked constantly about his future and everything he was going to build.

“He had his hopes and dreams tied up in his future,” Jovon Dangerfield said. “And it was all taken away in an instant.”

What came next reflects something about who Jovon Dangerfield is. He did not retreat into private grief. He organized.

Jovon joined the Safe California Roads Coalition alongside a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including local representatives Shannon Grove and Jasmeet Bains, to advocate for a package of legislative reforms aimed at strengthening DUI prosecution and prevention. The measures he supports include requiring courts to issue formal Watson warnings to DUI offenders, putting them on legal notice that a future impaired-driving death can be charged as murder. Other proposed reforms include closing a DMV point loophole for drivers who receive diversion after a deadly crash, increasing DMV point penalties for fatal crashes, and barring people convicted of serious or repeat DUIs from purchasing alcohol.

“Pain has a way of dislodging belief systems,” Dangerfield said. “This was an opportunity for me to fortify and reinforce what I believe, and also to step in and be a part of it.”

His approach to prevention extends beyond legislation. As someone who describes himself as “a big picture guy,” Jovon works directly with young people, meeting them where they are before a dangerous night ever begins. Planning a safe ride home, he argues, should be part of the pre-event routine, as natural as deciding what to wear.

“Deciding how you’re going to get home should be at the top of the list,” he said. “That decision alone could save lives, including your own.”

MADD Kern County asked Jovon Dangerfield to deliver this year’s victim statement because the organization has always understood that the most powerful arguments for change come from the people who have paid the highest price. He will speak during the opening ceremony’s mission moment, followed by a moment of silence.

“I appreciate MADD giving a place to various people on a grieving scale,” Dangerfield said. “Grief doesn’t have any resolve, but it gives a platform.”

For Jovon’s full story, read the article in the latest issue of Bakersfield Life Magazine, out Aug. 29.

Why Chain | Cohn | Clark Takes Part

Chain | Cohn | Clark’s involvement in Move With MADD is part of a broader and longstanding commitment to DUI prevention and victim advocacy in Kern County. The firm has supported petitions and has advocated alongside MADD for legislative measures. Clark is a founding board member for the local chapter of MADD and is a recipient of the “Pursuit of Justice” award by MADD California. He regularly speaks to DUI offenders during the MADD Victim Impact Panels. Law firm marketing director Jorge Barrientos was given the “Honorary Volunteer” award from MADD California. And MADD Kern County honored Chain | Cohn | Clark with a “Community Champion” award for the law firm’s work toward raising awareness locally and helping victims.

The firm also handles the legal aftermath of DUI crashes throughout Kern County and California. When an impaired driver injures or kills someone, the path to justice runs through two separate systems: the criminal process, which holds drivers accountable to the state, and the civil process, which holds them accountable to the people they hurt. Those two paths operate independently. A civil claim for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and wrongful death can proceed regardless of how the criminal case resolves, and it can provide compensation that the criminal system is not designed to deliver.

In cases involving repeat DUI offenders, California law allows for enhanced damages that reflect the deliberate and egregious nature of choosing to drive impaired after prior convictions. The distinction between negligence and the kind of reckless disregard for human life that repeat offenders demonstrate matters significantly in determining the full scope of what a surviving family may recover.

“When we talk about accountability in DUI cases, we mean it in every dimension,” Matt Clark said. “The criminal system holds drivers accountable to the state. The civil system holds them accountable to the people they hurt. Both matter. And the families affected deserve both.”

How to Participate

The event is open to all of Kern County. Adult registration to participate in the 5K is $35 for adults and $25 for youth. Registration packet pickup is available in advance from 3-6:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 17, at Action Sports, 9500 Brim hall Road, Suite 400. Participants can register through the MADD website in advance of the event: bit.ly/bakersfieldmovewithmadd.

The morning follows a schedule designed to honor both the gravity of the cause and the spirit of community that the event has always embodied. Registration opens at 6 a.m., and the opening ceremony begins at 7:30 a.m., including victim statements and a moment of silence. The Kids’ Fun Run starts at 8 a.m., followed by the 5K run, walk, and victims’ march. Awards, medals, and youth contest prizes round out the morning. Kids’ activities, vendors, and food will be available throughout the morning.

“We want to see Bakersfield show up,” Matt Clark said. “This is our community’s event. Every person who registers, walks, runs, or simply stands alongside a survivor is part of the answer to a problem that has taken too many people from us.”

MADD’s Mission 

Move With MADD serves as a catalyst to honor lives lost to impaired driving, support survivors — some of whom can no longer walk, and others who are learning to walk again — and drive progress in prevention efforts. The event has three main components:

• Remember: Walk and run for those who no longer can and alongside those who are learning to walk again.
• Inspire: Walk and run empowered even when we feel powerless, as survivors when we have been victimized, and with purpose when we have lost our way.
• Commit: Walk and run with supporters who share our vision of “No More Victims.”

Funds raised during the Move With MADD support:

• Victim Services: MADD provides free, 24/7 emotional support and guidance to victims and survivors of impaired driving. MADD’s trained advocates assist with legal processes, crime victim compensation, court accompaniment, and more.
• Education and Prevention: MADD offers educational programs in schools, workplaces, and communities to raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving and promote responsible choices. Through youth-focused initiatives and community outreach, MADD encourages a culture of safety on the roads.
• Law Enforcement Partnerships: MADD collaborates with law enforcement on high-visibility enforcement campaigns, such as sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols, to deter impaired driving and ensure law enforcement is equipped with the latest tools and strategies to protect communities from impaired drivers.
• Advocacy and Innovation: MADD pushes for stronger laws and proactive solutions to end impaired driving, like the HALT Drunk Driving Law, which requires lifesaving anti-drunk driving technology in all new vehicles to end this crime.

Nationally, impaired driving statistics are as follows:

• 2 out of 3 people will be impacted by drunk driving crashes in their lifetime.
• Every day 37 people are killed in drunk driving crashes, or every 39 minutes someone is killed.
• Every day 1,063 people are injured, or every 81 seconds, in drunk driving crashes.
• The average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.

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If you or someone you know is injured in an accident at the fault of someone else, or injured on the job no matter whose fault it is, contact the attorneys at Chain | Cohn | Clark by calling (661) 323-4000, or fill out a free consultation form, text, or chat with us at chainlaw.com.