Drive safely and save lives

A couple of road construction projects in the area and a holiday weekend combine to create a good opportunity to ask for our neighbors’ help tallying a fatality free weekend.

First, it’s Labor Day weekend. For many people that means a three-day weekend and a chance to celebrate the end of summer with family and friends.

We’re all for celebrating, just not the kind of celebrating that leads to DUI arrests or fatal accidents that could have been avoided if drivers were sober. Plan to make it home alive. A designated driver can help with that. Don’t be shy either about taking your buddy’s keys or calling your best girlfriend a cab. It’s the right thing to do. And there’s little chance such a decision will yield a lifetime of regret.

Second, we come bearing a plea from our friends and neighbors working on late-season road projects in the core area: slow down.

Traffic is heavy on the local roads, and while road crews spend the next year upgrading the first phase of Seward Meridian Parkway from the Parks Highway to the Palmer-Wasilla, drivers should expect delays. If possible, consider avoiding the intersection if you lack the patience to be courteous.

We carry this plea to you on behalf our neighbors Lacey McDaniel, the flagger who was hit early one August morning in 2008 in a construction zone at Parks Highway and Lucus Road, and Joshua Vialpando, the man whose vehicle struck and seriously injured her.

Police filed charges of assault and leaving the scene against Vialpando and in July 2009 he was sentenced to serve 10 years with three suspended on a conviction for first-degree assault.

Investigation into the accident determined that Vialpando was traveling about 50 mph when the vehicle he was driving struck McDaniel.

During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Trina Sears described Vialpando’s conduct as egregious.

“He didn’t stop. He continued to drive and just left her there, possibly to die. She almost did die,” Sears said in 2009.

Before Vialpando accepted his conviction that July day he made a brief statement in court: “I’m not a bad person. I never meant to hurt anyone. I can’t change anything that I’ve done, and so I’m just sorry. To Miss McDaniel, I’m sorry.”

Outside the courtroom that day, McDaniel said there’s a lesson for everyone to learn from her case. It’s a message that warrants repeating.

“I would just like people to slow down, because it can happen even when you’re not drinking,” she said.

We lament that the McDaniels and Vialpando families were forever altered on that August morning. But we hope their tragic story will remind our friends and neighbors to slow down, be patient and stay alive.