Teen DUI victim’s mother hopes new signs, patrol curb carnage

Every day has been difficult for Evelyn Machovsky since a drunk driver killed her 14-year-old son. But this weekend is especially painful, as Pierce County erects two new memorial signs to remember the boy’s death and call attention to the continuing carnage of DUI crashes.

“I’m hoping that it makes people pause and think and realize this is where someone’s life ended. Not just Daniel’s but all the other ones that we pass by. It’s just happening all too often,” says the Puyallup mother.

Daniel Morse was killed Dec. 27, 2009 as he rode a new skateboard given to him for Christmas along the side of 204th Street East in Graham. Darrell Andrew Ross was driving drunk and without his headlights when he swerved and slammed into Daniel.

Ross admitted to drinking and driving and pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide. He served 23 months in prison.

While DUI advocates usually install one memorial sign in memory of victims, officials say they are putting up two signs to doubly remind people of the impact impaired driving has on so many others.

“Too many people don’t realize how devastating it is,” Machovsky says. “It’s usually the innocent people that they run into or the person on the street. And then it’s the families who have to deal with the consequences every single day of their life. And I think people don’t think about that.”

Machovsky’s family has been especially hard hit. Daniel’s older brother Christopher also was killed by a driver suspected of alcohol and marijuana impairment while driving home from his job at a pizza parlor in 2003 in the San Diego area.

“Of course, I’m like everybody else. I never really thought about it too much until it happened to me,” she says.

In addition to the signs, the Tacoma Pierce County DUI and Traffic Safety Task Force will conduct a special DUI emphasis patrol on Saturday night to help spread the word all impaired driving crashes are preventable. At least 25 task force troopers, deputies and officers will hunt for impaired drivers throughout East Pierce County, including near the site where Daniel was killed, handing out memorial flyers about Daniel to the motorists they stop.

Officials expect more arrests than usual because the multi-agency patrol will utilize the Washington State Patrol’s Mobile Impaired Driving Unit (MIDU).

The MIDU is a 36-foot mobile home equipped with three breath-test instruments and two holding cells. It enables patrol officers to drop off arrested motorists for processing and get back on patrol in minutes.