Group to spotlight drunken driving issue
By Joe Gerrety At least 19 times so far this year and 29 times in 1999, Lafayette-area families have received news that a loved one was killed in an automobile crash caused by a driver who was impaired by drugs or alcohol. Debbi Landis got the fateful police visit at 3:30 a.m. Dec. 27, 1999, after her husband of 21 years, Michael Landis, the athletic director at McCutcheon High School, was killed and their daughter, Laura, now a senior at McCutcheon, was injured in an alcohol-related crash on Interstate 75 in Georgia. Landis will be the key speaker Tuesday night when the fledgling Greater Lafayette Mothers Against Drunk Driving group hosts a candlelight vigil. The vigil, starting at 7 p.m. at Riehle Plaza, is meant to memorialize people who have been killed or injured in alcohol-related crashes and to draw attention to the continuing problem of drunken driving. In addition to talking about what a likable, determined man her husband was, Landis will recount the morning she received the tragic news and then had to break it, via telephone, to her daughter, who was alone in a Georgia hospital. "Our life has just been drastically changed. I just can't believe someone would be so irresponsible as to get drunk to that magnitude and drive," Landis said. "It has put a lot of new burdens on me, both financially and emotionally." The driver who caused the crash, Alicia Bader, 45, of Acworth, Ga., had a blood-alcohol content of .21 percent when she lost control of her vehicle, crossing the median of the interstate and slamming in to the Landis vehicle. She was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison. Dan Towery, a founding member of the local MADD group, said vigil organizers hope to put faces and names on the issue of drunken driving. "You hear about a story on the radio or read it in the newspaper, and then you move on," said Towery, whose daughter, Sarah, was one of three people killed in a crash caused by a drunken driver March 21, 1999, on County Road 350 South. "When you start adding things together and looking at the whole story it gives you a different perspective." So far, friends and relatives have submitted photos of about nine drunken driving victims that will be posted on a victims' board at Tuesday night's vigil. Towery said others are invited to bring photos, along with dates of birth and death, to add to the display the night of the event. Towery said he hopes for a good turnout, not only to draw attention to the issue and convince people not to drink and drive, but also to give survivors a chance to remember their loved ones at a trying time of year. "This time of year, the holidays, are particularly difficult for the people who have lost loved ones," he said. "It's a memorial to them -- they're gone but they're not forgotten." Mary Tremmel, area coordinator of the new MADD group, said she hopes people who have not been directly affected by drunken driving will attend to show support to the victims as well. Some of the victims' survivors will be going through their first holiday season since losing a loved one, she said. Tremmel became involved in MADD because the crash that killed Sarah Towery happened not far from her home on a stretch of highway where her son rides his bicycle. She said she hopes the vigil, possibly the first of its kind in Lafayette, will become an annual event. "I'm happy that we're able to bring
victims and their families together in what I hope will be a comfortable
environment," she said.
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