Memorial markers honor victims, warn against drunken driving

A roadside sign bearing the name of Caitlin Elizabeth Weese can't take away the pain of losing her.

But it does provide some comfort knowing her memory and legacy will live on, her stepfather, Joel Mains, said.

At a Wednesday morning news conference at Gilberts' Waitcus Park, Mains, along with Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, representatives of the Illinois Department of Transportation and members of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists unveiled the state's first Roadside Memorial Marker, a blue and white sign that reads, "Please Don't Drink and Drive: In Memory of Caitlin Weese, May 22, 2003."

Caitlin, a Larkin High School senior, was struck in May 2003 by a drunken driver on Route 72 west of Gilberts, just eight days before she was to graduate.

She died two days later.

The Roadside Memorial Marker Program is a result of legislation proposed by the Tina Ball Memorial Task Force, a group formed after construction worker Tina Ball was struck and killed in a work zone on Interstate 57 by a drunken driver in September 2003.

The legislation, which went into effect in January and was refined in August, allows signs to be placed at state highway crash sites to honor those killed by drunken drivers.

AAIM spokeswoman Marti Belluschi said families of DUI crash victims have requested the markers for more than two decades.

Brown said she hopes the signs "will be highly effective in helping to reduce or eliminate drunken driving, and that they bring solace to those who knew and loved the victims of the fatal DUI crashes."

Officials also hope the markers will reduce the number of makeshift memorials, which, some say, can be distracting to drivers.

Families who have lost loved ones to drunken driving can request an application for a marker from IDOT. If the crash occurred on a local road, applications must be presented through the village or county.

Crashes must have occurred on or after Jan. 1, 1990. The cost per marker is $150; $50 for a plaque bearing the name of the victim.

Memorial markers will stay up for seven years, Belluschi said. Families will have the opportunity to renew signs for another seven years.

Pending legislation calls for DUI offenders to pay for a portion of the signs. That legislation currently sits in the Senate Rules Committee, Belluschi said.

Mains called the blue-and-white sign "fitting" because it bears the colors of Larkin High School. Blue, he said, was also the color of Caitlin and her mother Diane's eyes, "the most amazing blue you'd ever seen."

Diane Mains went to work for Schaumburg-based AAIM shortly after Caitlin's death. After she died of a heart condition in August 2006, Joel joined the group to carry on her work.

Mains encouraged families who have lost loved ones to drunken driving to apply for the signs.

"I would have never wanted to see a sign on the side of the road (with Caitlin's name)," he said. "But what a fitting tribute if this sign can save one person."

To date, 25 requests have been made, IDOT traffic safety resource prosecutor Elizabeth Earleywine said.

Caitlin's aunt Connie Remmens of Elgin called the event "bittersweet. I'm hoping it will help," she said. "Unfortunately it's not going to get all the drunken drivers off the road."