War against drunk driving continues

HARRISBURG — In 2007, a total of 1,121 US service people died in Iraq and Afghanistan operations. In 2007, 535 alcohol-related traffic deaths occurred on roadways in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. To remember those victims who lost their lives, the Pennsylvania DUI Association held its 5 Annual DUI Victims Remembrance Ceremony on Dec. 11, at the DUI Victims Memorial Garden. The names of over 1,600 DUI Victims have been engraved on bricks and placed in the Memorial Garden since its inception. In 2008, over 125 names were added to the Memorial Garden and those individuals were remembered during the ceremony by the reading of their names. Readers included representatives from the Pennsylvania State Police, the American Trauma Society, Center for Traffic Safety, the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Institute, and PennDOT. Lisa Cannon, whose son John James Heffelinger, II was killed in July of 2002, will also be present to read names. The Pennsylvania DUI Victims Memorial Garden was first opened on Oct. 2, 2003, as a way to permanently honor and remember those killed in impaired driving crashes. The Memorial Garden is located in Harrisburg at 2413 North Front Street, in the front lawn of the Pennsylvania DUI Association. It is available to the public 365 days out of the year.