Highway Memorial Has To Go State Hopes Wildflowers Will Serve As Compromise

The state says a roadside memorial to the victim of an accused drunken driver must be removed.

Heaped along Interstate 5 near Tillicum are flowers from Janiel Zanetti’s funeral.

She died March 2 when her car was struck head-on by Robert Boeder of Lakewood, who authorities say was drunk and driving the wrong way on the freeway. Boeder is in the Pierce County Jail facing a charge of vehicular homicide.

Besides flowers, the memorial includes a cross - a cross that triggered an inquiry to the state from ACLU legislative director Jerry Sheehan. Sheehan didn’t return calls Thursday and Friday.

Federal regulations don’t allow memorials beside interstate freeways, say state officials. Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Olson said Sheehan’s call prompted a letter from the department to Zanetti’s widower, Glenn.

In the April 4 letter, regional traffic engineer Chuck Hornbuckle told Glenn Zanetti federal regulations prohibit the roadside memorial. Hornbuckle offered his sympathies, but told Zanetti the department wanted to remove the display on June 1.

Olson said the department also has safety concerns. Motorists should be watching the road, not gawking at memorials, Olson said. The department is also worried about motorists stopping to spend time at the memorial.

“It’s dangerous to be parked on the shoulder,” Olson said. “We want to do the right thing. But someone has to make some tough calls.”

It was a delicate situation, to be sure. But it wasn’t unprecedented. And there is hope for Zanetti’s relatives who say the memorial serves as a reminder to motorists and lawmakers that drunken drivers must be stopped.

The DOT made headlines last fall when state workers removed a cross and disturbed a roadside rockery placed alongside an I-5 offramp where a Seattle police detective was shot to death. The state didn’t want a repeat performance.

What worked in Seattle may work in Pierce County.

The state solved its Seattle public-relations problem by putting the rockery back and allowing a tree planted by police officers to remain. Police officers and high school students who tended the site consider it a memorial, but the feds call it landscaping.

Olson suggested a similar arrangement in the Zanetti case.

“My thought was we could put wildflowers there,” Olson said. “We ought to be able to work out something that makes sense for everyone.”

Jessica Rogers, the victim’s sister, said she was distressed to hear about state plans to remove the memorial. But she brightened considerably when told about the possibility of a permanent planting.

“That would be a good thing, definitely,” Rogers said.

Glenn Zanetti said he was planning to replace the now-wilted flowers with plastic or silk ones. But real planted ones are also a good idea, he said.

Zanetti said he visited the memorial Thursday night for about 15 minutes. It was the third time he’s stopped.

“I need to get back over there and clean it up,” he said.