Traveling memorial arrives at Pitt, shows DUI tragedies

More than 1,000 people have died in Pennsylvania as a result of alcohol-related car… More than 1,000 people have died in Pennsylvania as a result of alcohol-related car accidents in the past two years. A moving memorial dedicated to victims of drunk driving stopped in front of the William Pitt Union yesterday in an event attended by local officials, members of the news media and a few curious students.

The Pennsylvania Driving Under the Influence Association constructed the Victims Memorial Garden in Harrisburg in 2003. The memorial features 1,300 bricks with the names of DUI victims.

This year the organization created a moving replica of the memorial in a 30-foot trailer that began its tour of Pennsylvania today in Fayette County. It stopped in Pittsburgh at 2 p.m.

The trailer’s 25-foot interior features a hand-painted garden scene emulating the memorial in Harrisburg with the names of Pennsylvania DUI victims on the wall.

The event, run by Cathy Tress on behalf of PDUIA, featured local Pittsburgh officials praising the effort to raise awareness.

“I don’t think that anything good can come out of drunk driving accidents, other than a sense of awareness,” said Donna Jo McDaniel, an administrative judge in the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas and the event’s first speaker.

McDaniel also spoke of the success in decreasing drunk driving incidents, adding that a public service announcement on the subject had been aired 7,800 times in the past year.

Following McDaniel’s speech, Allegheny County district attorney Steven Zapalla thanked those in attendance and echoed earlier sentiments that drunk driving is a senseless act.

“It’s something that drives you to do a better job,” Zapalla said.

William Bochter, assistant chief of operations for the Pittsburgh Police, spoke next and reiterated Zapalla’s words, adding that “we will continue our commitment.”

Traci Vetovich, a victims’ advocate from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, introduced the final speaker – Katie Knappenberger, the mother of a 10-year-old DUI victim.

Knappenberger told the story of her daughter’s death, which occurred when a drunk driver hit their car on a family vacation. She also spoke about the effects the accident had on her life after the loss of her daughter.

Knappenberger said that since the accident she had also “lost her husband” and needed to take anti-depressants. She stressed that the effect of drunk driving is not only the loss of life.

“I just ask that if people are going out, they designate a driver,” Knappenberger said in closing.

Vetovich said that Knappenberger is a human face for this tragedy.

“These names in the trailer signify a life loss,” Vetovich said.

“One of the reasons we chose this location is because the University of Pittsburgh has a lot of young people, and they need to understand how serious this is,” Tress said.