Lisa Jo Adkison said she’s had a lot of emotions over the past few years, but she experienced a new one this week when she a memorial for her family members was gone.
Her son, Josh, and granddaughter, Maddie, were killed in a car accident that involved a drunk driver three years ago. A sign near the crash site which reads, “Please don’t drink and drive — In memory of the Adkison family — January 27, 2008,” was recently taken down by the Texas Department of Transportation.
Adkison got a phone call on Valentine’s Day telling her she had 30 days to retrieve the sign she originally paid $350 for.
“That wasn’t a real good day for me,” Adkison said. “Valentine’s Day is not that big of a deal, but when you’ve buried a child and a grandchild, it’s not easy.”
Across the state, 102 of 126 memorial signs are scheduled to be removed. State law allows the signs to stay up for two years. The original 2007 law allowed the signs to stay up for one year. While legislators worked to extend the time limit, some of the signs remained for four years. The oldest memorial signs started coming down the first week of February.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Adkison said. “Why not leave them up, why not? They’re not costing you anything. They’re costing you to take them down.”
Adkison said she understands that TxDOT has to abide by the law, but was shocked to find out she couldn’t pay to have the sign put back up, even after a waiting period.
Val Lopez, with the Fort Worth district of TxDOT, said once a sign comes down, it can’t be replaced. If a sign is replaced, therefore up for more than two years, it could result in federal funding cuts and penalties, he explained.
“From [the law’s] inception, it was always going to be a temporary sign,” Lopez said. “The fact that more than two years has elapsed, we were waiting for legislation to pass. The 82nd Legislature extended the posting for two years. It was determined that two years would not result in federal sanctions.”
Adkison said other bereaved parents in her circle of friends are struggling with the fact that their signs may be next.
She said while it may be possible to make a new memorial in her family’s honor, it won’t be the same.
“I chose to do the sign that had writing so that people would know it was related to drinking and driving, whereas a cross or something, people don’t know,” Adkison said. “The sign being up is one way of them having a voice. Think about it, people. This is real. Taking a sign down is like taking their voice away.”
Adkison said she plans to go to state representatives to see if there is a way to make the signs a permanent fixture alongside state highways. However, she and other still-grieving families may not get far.
A spokesperson for state Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, said there were no formal plans to look at the law in 2013 and, because the law already extended the sign postings by a year, it was unlikely there would be much discussion on the matter.
