Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But two years ago, her 16-year-old grandson drag-raced after downing a couple of beers. Along a craggy country road near Powhatan, he crashed.
"He was driving; he had no seat belt on," Riggle said. "He was the only one killed. We would never have survived if he had killed someone else."
Thursday, in her grandson's memory, Riggle placed a red bow on a Christmas tree at Tanglewood Mall.
"I'm not sure how many people it will deter," Riggle said. "I don't know anyone it makes a difference to until they have someone in their family killed. ... Until I was involved in this, I never noticed it."
Riggle is a member of People Against Impaired Drivers, one of a variety of organizations - including the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and law-enforcement agencies - that sponsored Thursday's event. The ceremony was the first in December commemorating Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.
The live tree sat in the hospitality room of Tanglewood Mall as passers-by drank mocktails - nonalcoholic drinks - and were treated to the singing of McGruff, the crime-prevention dog. On the tree was a hodge-podge of red ribbons. Hanging from some were photographs of loved ones who died.
The tree is a reminder how easily a person can become a victim of a drunken driver, said Brenda Altman, chairwoman of this region's MADD organization. On April 11, 1988, Altman and her sister were hit head-on by a drunken driver as they drove along Interstate 64 near Williamsburg. Her sister died. Altman suffered multiple injuries and still wears a leg brace.
The drunken driver had been in three other DUI-related crashes before the one in 1988, she said. He served two years and nine months of a 10-year sentence for the crash involving Altman and her sister.
The goal of Thursday's event was to provide a visual reminder to the public, said Mary King, spokeswoman for the Department of Motor Vehicles. Last year in the Roanoke Valley there were no fatalities due to alcohol-related crashes during the holidays, in part because of a barrage of educational programs, she said.
But does all the media hype plugging drunken-driving prevention really work?
"It's one of those things that you never really know, you only hope for," Altman said. "I don't know I've saved a life, but I hope I'll be able to by what I say and do."
by CNB