Chris Keller scanned the list, searching for the name of a friend he once knew, but it wasn't easy -- there were more than 1,300 names.
He was inside the DUI Victims' Moving Memorial, a trailer housing a 25-foot wall listing the names of all known DUI victims in Pennsylvania. The trailer's interior is painted and decorated to resemble a peaceful park, complete with benches and faux stone stairs.
As the trailer stopped in State College yesterday, he found the name: Anthony Severo. Keller (senior-crime, law and justice) knew Severo in high school, where they wrestled together. The 22-year-old, who had gone on to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, was killed by a drunk driver nearly two years ago.
Between July 2006 and June 2007, the State College Police Department reported the most annual DUI arrests -- 484 -- in the past four years. At the current rate, State College Police Lt. Dana Leonard said this year's DUI arrests are "on pace to equal or exceed last year's" total.
Two DUI cases involving Penn State students are pending trial, both regarding incidents in the past year.
State College police said Penn State student Anthony Torsell drove while intoxicated last October and fatally struck Richard Smith, 21, and critically injured Penn State student Aaron Stidd, 21. Torsell is charged with vehicular homicide, and his trial is set to begin Sept. 24.
Additionally, police said Katherine Applegate, 23, drove while intoxicated and struck and critically injured Penn State freshman Michael Drauch with her sport utility vehicle last December. Applegate's jury selection is scheduled for Oct. 1. She was originally charged with accidents involving death or personal injury, aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence, driving under the influence and restrictions on driver's license for driving without contacts or glasses, according to court documents.
But despite statistics, Keller doesn't blame Penn State for fostering drunk drivers like the one who killed his friend.
"I think it's an individual's responsibility," he said.
The memorial, parked on East College Avenue near the Pugh Street intersection, attracted "a lot of interest" from students, organizers said. It debuted in State College with a morning ceremony featuring Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira, State College Borough Police Chief Tom King and Pennsylvania Driving Under the Influence Association (PA D.U.I.) official George Geisler.
"I appreciate that this memorial draws attention to the fact that drunk driving is a senseless act," Madeira said in a short speech.
Hanover native Mike Martin, who has assisted the PA D.U.I. Association on other projects, constructed the memorial over several months. Aside from the wall, the trailer features a plasma-screen TV on which the victim's names are scrolled.
Martin said few students had stepped into the memorial, attributing it to the cluster of police officers surrounding the trailer during the morning ceremony, which he said probably scared viewers off.
But, he added, "we've seen a lot of people paying attention to it."
Geisler, the PA D.U.I. Association director of law enforcement services for eastern Pennsylvania, travels across the state with the memorial. He said the memorial is on a breakneck schedule, stopping in Williamsport tomorrow and Lancaster on Thursday.
