Signs near Mt. Spokane High reminders of DUIs’ toll

A group of family and friends gathered last week on the side of Mount Spokane Park Drive, near Mt. Spokane High School, for the dedication and unveiling of two new road signs.

Tears flowed as the song “Stairway to Heaven” played in the background. The signs read, “Please don’t drink and drive. In memory of Walter Corman and Kyle Hutchinson.”

Corman’s mother, Judy Miller read a statement at the Friday ceremony.

Corman was 21 and Hutchinson 20 when they died in an alcohol-related traffic accident in August 2003 in Pend Oreille County.

The driver of the car was Dawn Wiltzius, who was 22 at the time.

Wiltzius decided to drive home from a party at Gillette Lake in northern Stevens County even though her father questioned whether she’d had too much to drink. Corman and Hutchinson had also been drinking.

Wiltzius was sentenced in June to nearly 5½ years in prison.

Miller and Hutchinson’s parents paid to have the signs put up. The signs will remain for 10 years.

“The reason that we had the signs put in front of Mount Spokane High School is because both boys and the driver of the car graduated from Mount Spokane,” Miller said. “Normally the DOT only puts the signs at the crash site, so it took me eight months to convince both the DOT (Department of Transportation) and the high school that the signs belonged there,” she said.

“I wanted them there so that the kids would have to pass them when they went in and out of the parking lot. So maybe they would think.

“Also Wally and Kyle were great snowboarders, and there are a lot of accidents that happen on Mount Spokane Park Drive,” said Miller.

Miller said that they hope these signs will get people’s attention.

“Both of these kids were the best and the brightest, and even the driver. She was pre-med at the University of Washington,” said Miller.

Since her son’s death, Miller has become involved working on drunken-driving panels, talking to offenders about the impact of drinking and driving.

“We need to do something,” she said. “Last night there must have been a hundred and some folks at this DUI panel. This is done twice a month.

“They run the whole gamut of ages. It doesn’t matter about age, and it doesn’t matter about economic status.

“We have 48 people a day in this country that die due to DUIs, and that’s not even talking about the ones that are injured and survive it. We’ve got to stop this insanity,” Miller said.