LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Buying a beach ball while shopping with her family is one of the last moments 11-year-old Cody Marissa Vesely would have with her family. Just before midnight on February 12, 1997, she would be killed in a car crash in Las Vegas. A drunk driver ran a red light and struck the Vesely family car. Cody was instantly killed.
The Vesely family's story is just one of many that will be remembered on Wednesday when families of victims of DUI crashes will gather along Nevada State Route 157 to post up Victim Memorial signs at every mile marker up to Mount Charleston. For 26 years, Stop DUI, a local non-profit, has continued this annual tradition in observance of National Drunk Driving Prevention Month.
“Prior to the signs we were putting red ribbons up on the mile-marker posts and we found that they just didn’t have the impact,” said Sandy Heverly, executive director and co-founder of STOP DUI. “We decided we needed something that was going to have an impact and hopefully resonate with all the thousands of motorists that are visiting beautiful Mt. Charleston.”
The initiative is called “Miles of Memories,” and Heverly said that the signs serve not only as a reminder to drivers to drive under sober conditions but also provide some semblance of solace to families of victims.
Heverly is hanging the sign with her mother's name, Doris Erb. She said her family was on their way to California to visit Disneyland when a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit their car. Her mother was killed. Heverly said the signs are another way for loved ones, like herself, to cope with their loss.
“They know that their loved ones have not died in vain, and that their names are being used to help save lives,” Heverly said.
At one point, SR 157, also known as Kyle Canyon Road, was one of the deadliest roads in Nevada as well as in the United States. STOP DUI tracks fatal crashes where a driver was under the influence, and reports that before the Miles of Memories campaign, about 17 people were killed every year on Kyle Canyon Road. Today, that number has been reduced to two. In Metro’s jurisdiction, 52 people have been killed in a crash where impaired driving was a factor, which is slightly down from 61 people killed in a deadly DUI crash by this time last year.
The Victim Memorial signs will remain on Kyle Canyon Road through December and will be removed the first week of January.
