Posted on 12/13/2007 7:21:16 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
AUSTIN — A new state program will allow friends and family of deceased victims of drunken driving accidents in Texas to purchase memorial signs that will be placed near the crash site for a year.
The signs will have the victim's name, date of the crash and the phrases "Please Don't Drink and Drive" and "In Memory of."
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas had more than 1,670 fatalities in 2006 that involved drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The $300 signs will be 42 inches high and 48 inches wide with a blue background and white lettering. The cost covers the expense of making the sign and putting it up, TxDOT spokesman Mark Cross said Tuesday.
After a year, the signs will be offered to the people who applied for them.
The first sign will be unveiled next week and will be in memory of Rachel Blasingame, a 16-year-old high school honors student who died in May 2003 when her car was struck head-on by a drunken driver on Interstate 635 in Mesquite.
Her mother, Julie Blasingame, asked the Legislature to create the program, which lawmakers approved in May.
"I would love to see these memorial signs all over Texas as constant reminders for our drivers to not drink and drive," Blasingame said in a statement released by TxDOT.
The program applies only to victims killed by impaired drivers. To be eligible, the victims must have been killed on a state-maintained roadway. Impaired drivers who are killed in a crash will not be eligible.
Signs will be placed as close as possible to the crash site, Cross said.
The program does not limit or prevent privately made memorials that are governed by other rules and regulations, Cross said.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) of Texas already helps families coordinate placing wooden markers, most often white crosses, at crash sites. Those usually cost between $10 and $25 and can be left in place indefinitely, said Karen Housewright, MADD state director.
She said MADD will tell victims about the new sign program, noting the cost will be prohibitive for some families.
"It will depend on the family. Some will very much want to put the metal sign up," Housewright said. "We're trying everything we can to get the message across that it is such a dangerous and senseless crime and it affects real people."
Looks like the state is trying to make money off of this.
$300?
it would be an improvement over those roadside shrines that are all over the roads.....
$hamele$$ Ba$turd$!
I don’t think this is what Lady Byrd Johnson had in mind when she started her Beautify America project. Sounds like one more thing to take your eye off the road to look at, right before you cause your own accident.
“I don’t think this is what Lady Byrd Johnson had in mind when she started her Beautify America project.”
Another symbol of our collapse into gaudy emotionalism.
It’s the $300 sign, I meant.
Just thought it to be a bit tacky to charge that much for a $50 sign.
I agreed, agree with you.
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