CRANSTON –– Rebecca Bowman, who was 13 when she lost both her mother and her best friend, said a drunken driver “took away what I was.” She doesn’t want anyone else to experience that kind of loss, but the state police say the number of fatal car crashes is up this year.

Bowman and police officials from around the state on Monday joined representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving in urging people to tie a red MADD ribbon on their cars –– a campaign to remind people not to drink and drive over the holiday weekend.

They also praised a law the governor is expected to sign Wednesday –– the day before Thanksgiving and, the police said, a day that traditionally sees a lot of drinking and driving. The General Assembly passed the bill this year allowing the police to seek a warrant to have a blood sample taken to measure the alcohol level of a suspected impaired driver who has refused to submit to a breath test after an accident involving serious injuries.

But officials and advocates say more should be done. One proposal would let the police pull over a driver for not wearing a seat belt. Others include sobriety checkpoints and requiring interlock ignitions on cars so that drivers would have to blow into alcohol detection devices to start the vehicles. “It takes a community to change behavior,” said former state police Supt. Steven M. Pare, who emceed the Holiday Highway Safety Awareness Day held at the state Traffic Tribunal in Cranston. He said the MADD ribbons send a message that the community supports police efforts to curb drunken driving through stepped-up and zero-tolerance enforcement.

“If you are caught,” Pare said, “you will be prosecuted.”

Also attending were police officials from Pawtucket, Warwick, Cranston, Coventry, Barrington and West Warwick, as well Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a representative from AAA, and William R. Guglietta, chief magistrate of the Traffic Tribunal.

Rebecca Bowman’s mother, Marsha Bowman, and Rebecca Bowman’s friend, Kaitlyn DeCubellis, 13, were killed on Route 4 in October 1999 when their car was struck as they headed from Narragansett to the Warwick Mall. The crash focused statewide attention on drinking and driving. Stephen M. Reise was sentenced to 14 years after he pleaded no contest in 2000 to five counts of driving while intoxicated, two of them resulting in death.

mmckinne@projo.com