TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Just this year alone, data from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shows 4,025 DUI crashes resulting in 145 deaths.

That’s 145 empty chairs this Thanksgiving.

That was the image Linda Unfried wanted people to remember on Wednesday night.

The day before Thanksgiving is dubbed ‘Blackout Wednesday,’ when bars across the nation are packed.

But while millions were having a fun night out on the town, Unfried sat at home looking at her sister, Josie, frozen in time in a photograph.

It was 1983 when Unfried said a 17-year-old walked into a Walgreens, bought a bottle of liquor without being carded and got behind the wheel.

“She tried to get out of his way, but she couldn’t,” Unfried said. “He crossed the line and hit her head on, flipping her car three times.”

“At 12:35 a.m., she died from a broken neck on the side of the road,” she said. “Witnesses said her last words were calling out for me.”

Unfried said that Thanksgiving, it seemed like time stopped.

“There was an empty seat at the table,” she said. “We didn’t even know what to do.”

“We didn’t know how to act,” Unfried said. “We didn’t know anything.”

So, Unfried dedicated her life to fighting drunk driving.

She founded the Hillsborough Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1984.

Ever since, she has been trying to get the message out, that drunk driving isn’t just to the point to where you cannot stand. It’s simply just being impaired. She said, for her, that’s just one drink. She said, just that one drink can affect someone’s reaction time and a matter of seconds could be deadly.

Decades later, Unfried’s empty chair still holds a place in her heart as she prepares for yet another Thanksgiving without Josie.

That is why she and Tampa police sent a strong message Wednesday night.

“We will have extra enforcements out this entire weekend,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said. “If you’re going to get behind the wheel impaired, you’re going to get pulled over and you’re going to be held accountable.”

“That is not a way you want to spend your holiday season,” he said.

News Channel 8’s Nicole Rogers asked Unfried, “How would you shift the perspective of someone who is just thinking about the inconvenience of getting their car tomorrow who is already out at the bar?”

“I’ll trade shoes with you,” she said. “I’ll trade shoes with you.”

“People don’t understand the loss of life and the not saying goodbye,” Unfried said. “My other sister died of cancer, and I spent the last three weeks with her everyday.”

“We had plenty of goodbyes, I knew everything she wanted, everything she knew,” she said. “With Josie, I had no goodbye.”

“It’s really really hard,” Unfried said. “It’s like taking a photo with a glass and throwing it on the floor and watching all of those pieces shatter; that’s what happens to your life and to your family life.”

To those who are drinking and need a ride, Unfried is begging you to call someone.

Whether it’s family, a friend, an Uber or Lyft, she said anything is better than getting behind the wheel drunk and possibly leaving another family with an empty chair this Thanksgiving.