nickel
02-12-2006, 11:37 AM
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/US/02/11/sobering.signs.ap/vert.dui.signs.ap.jpg
This memorial sign on Interstate 16 near Statesboro, Georgia, is the first of its kind in the state.
are drunk people really reading signs? i think this might help someone to think twice about drinking and driving, but if they are already drunk and driving i don't see it doing much to make them pull over.
Georgia hopes drunken drivers will see the signs
Highway markers honor DUI victims, replace roadside memorials
Sunday, February 12, 2006; Posted: 8:03 a.m. EST (13:03 GMT)
STATESBORO, Georgia (AP) -- Donny Ray Harris Jr. died on a rural stretch of Interstate 16 while riding shotgun with an intoxicated friend who lost control and flipped his car.
Now the 17-year-old is the first drunken-driving victim in Georgia to be remembered with an official highway marker, erected under a state law the governor signed just 13 days before the fatal crash.
Roadside wooden crosses, flowers and other homemade memorials to victims of drunken-drivers are common across the country, and sometimes a subject of debate. Georgia is among a small number of states that have given official recognition to the grim landmarks.
"If it had to happen like this, I think Donny would be proud his was the first one to be put up," said Harris' mother, Teri Shene, who came from her home in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, for the unveiling Jan. 30. "He wasn't a statistic."
That's exactly the point of the program for advocates. They hope the memorial signs -- the size of a typical speed limit sign -- will send motorists a message that's more personal, and more sobering, than mere statistics.
"They'll say `Well, there really was somebody killed by a drunk driver,"' said state Rep. Ben Bridges, who sponsored the law.
Bridges saw his share of carnage caused by drunken driving during his 30 years with the Georgia State Patrol.
"I feel that the state of Georgia owed it to a DUI victim because we failed in one way to keep a DUI driver off the road," Bridges said.
His measure raised fines for driving under the influence by $1 to pay for the $150 memorial signs.
The markers, which will be taken down after five years, read "In Memory Of," followed by the person's name and "DUI Victim."
Bridges pushed the measure through the Legislature in 2004 but the program has been slow to take off.
Only eight victims' families have requested the memorial markers, according to the Georgia Crime Victims Compensation Program, which handles the sign applications.
Georgia's Department of Transportation has erected only two signs so far -- Harris' and another on U.S. Highway 17 near downtown Savannah in memory of 80-year-old Helen Heyward of Ridgeland, South Carolina, one of three women killed when an impaired driver smashed into their car November 4, 2004.
State officials expect the number of memorial signs to increase now that word of the first markers is getting out.
However, not every victim's family would want a sign, especially if it would be along a route they drive every day, said Shawanda Reynolds-Cobb, director of the state victims' program.
"That may not be how they want to remember their loved one," Reynolds-Cobb said.
To be eligible, a person must have been killed by a drunken driver since May 13, 2004, the date the law was signed. Georgia had 450 drunken-driving fatalities that year. The death also must have occurred on a state or federal highway and the markers go up only after a guilty plea or conviction.
Roadside memorials have become a contentious issue for states trying to keep public rights of way from becoming garish shrines that might distract drivers.
New Mexico protects homemade memorials such as crosses and flowers as "traditional cultural properties." Wisconsin banned them until public outcry prompted the state to reverse its position in 2003.
Colorado bans homemade memorials, offering victims' families nonreligious state signs instead. Other states using some form of official marker include Texas, California, Florida and Wyoming.
"It's a charged issue emotionally because you have families that have lost a member and they want to have the ability to memorialize that person," said Melissa Savage, a transportation policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "The goal is to have this statewide policy in place so that all sides can be satisfied somewhat."
In Georgia, safety concerns dictate placement of the signs. The memorial for Harris sits at least 15 feet off the side of I-16 and is parallel to the highway rather than facing oncoming traffic. DOT spokesman David Spears said the agency wanted to place the markers where families visiting the memorial wouldn't pose a risk to traffic.
"If we can get motorists to view them as a deterrent to drinking and driving, that's great," Spears said. "But at the same time we don't want them to cause a distraction."
Harris' mother said she'll probably never know if having his name on a memorial sign manages to save anyone else's life.
"This was the only chance I had, and I took it, because that's what he would have wanted," Shene said.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/11/sobering.signs.ap/index.html
This memorial sign on Interstate 16 near Statesboro, Georgia, is the first of its kind in the state.
are drunk people really reading signs? i think this might help someone to think twice about drinking and driving, but if they are already drunk and driving i don't see it doing much to make them pull over.
Georgia hopes drunken drivers will see the signs
Highway markers honor DUI victims, replace roadside memorials
Sunday, February 12, 2006; Posted: 8:03 a.m. EST (13:03 GMT)
STATESBORO, Georgia (AP) -- Donny Ray Harris Jr. died on a rural stretch of Interstate 16 while riding shotgun with an intoxicated friend who lost control and flipped his car.
Now the 17-year-old is the first drunken-driving victim in Georgia to be remembered with an official highway marker, erected under a state law the governor signed just 13 days before the fatal crash.
Roadside wooden crosses, flowers and other homemade memorials to victims of drunken-drivers are common across the country, and sometimes a subject of debate. Georgia is among a small number of states that have given official recognition to the grim landmarks.
"If it had to happen like this, I think Donny would be proud his was the first one to be put up," said Harris' mother, Teri Shene, who came from her home in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, for the unveiling Jan. 30. "He wasn't a statistic."
That's exactly the point of the program for advocates. They hope the memorial signs -- the size of a typical speed limit sign -- will send motorists a message that's more personal, and more sobering, than mere statistics.
"They'll say `Well, there really was somebody killed by a drunk driver,"' said state Rep. Ben Bridges, who sponsored the law.
Bridges saw his share of carnage caused by drunken driving during his 30 years with the Georgia State Patrol.
"I feel that the state of Georgia owed it to a DUI victim because we failed in one way to keep a DUI driver off the road," Bridges said.
His measure raised fines for driving under the influence by $1 to pay for the $150 memorial signs.
The markers, which will be taken down after five years, read "In Memory Of," followed by the person's name and "DUI Victim."
Bridges pushed the measure through the Legislature in 2004 but the program has been slow to take off.
Only eight victims' families have requested the memorial markers, according to the Georgia Crime Victims Compensation Program, which handles the sign applications.
Georgia's Department of Transportation has erected only two signs so far -- Harris' and another on U.S. Highway 17 near downtown Savannah in memory of 80-year-old Helen Heyward of Ridgeland, South Carolina, one of three women killed when an impaired driver smashed into their car November 4, 2004.
State officials expect the number of memorial signs to increase now that word of the first markers is getting out.
However, not every victim's family would want a sign, especially if it would be along a route they drive every day, said Shawanda Reynolds-Cobb, director of the state victims' program.
"That may not be how they want to remember their loved one," Reynolds-Cobb said.
To be eligible, a person must have been killed by a drunken driver since May 13, 2004, the date the law was signed. Georgia had 450 drunken-driving fatalities that year. The death also must have occurred on a state or federal highway and the markers go up only after a guilty plea or conviction.
Roadside memorials have become a contentious issue for states trying to keep public rights of way from becoming garish shrines that might distract drivers.
New Mexico protects homemade memorials such as crosses and flowers as "traditional cultural properties." Wisconsin banned them until public outcry prompted the state to reverse its position in 2003.
Colorado bans homemade memorials, offering victims' families nonreligious state signs instead. Other states using some form of official marker include Texas, California, Florida and Wyoming.
"It's a charged issue emotionally because you have families that have lost a member and they want to have the ability to memorialize that person," said Melissa Savage, a transportation policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "The goal is to have this statewide policy in place so that all sides can be satisfied somewhat."
In Georgia, safety concerns dictate placement of the signs. The memorial for Harris sits at least 15 feet off the side of I-16 and is parallel to the highway rather than facing oncoming traffic. DOT spokesman David Spears said the agency wanted to place the markers where families visiting the memorial wouldn't pose a risk to traffic.
"If we can get motorists to view them as a deterrent to drinking and driving, that's great," Spears said. "But at the same time we don't want them to cause a distraction."
Harris' mother said she'll probably never know if having his name on a memorial sign manages to save anyone else's life.
"This was the only chance I had, and I took it, because that's what he would have wanted," Shene said.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/11/sobering.signs.ap/index.html