07/29/09 Slain St. Bonaventure Student’s Legacy Fuels Crusade Against Drunk Driving

Original YNN Buffalo Air Date: 07/29/09
A Western New York group honors state troopers for cracking down on drunk drivers.
“It’s completely preventable. No one puts a gun to their head and makes them drink and drive,” Deanna Russo. The Lake View resident knows first-hand the dangerous of drunk driving. She lost her sister Karen Kwiatkowski back in 1998. The 19 year old Saint Bonaventure freshman was heading home after spring break when a drunk driver struck and killed her in South Buffalo.
Now, Russo remembers her sister’s life with the Crusaders Against Impaired Driving, or C.A.I.D. program.
C.A.I.D. honored New York State Police Troop T, zone four for leading Erie County in the number of driving while intoxicated arrests.
“That’s not why we do the work. We do the work to make the roads safer. We do it every day. We’ll continue to do that,” said Capt. Michael Nigrelli with the New York State Police.
Troop T helped make more than 430 arrests in D.W.I. cases in 2008.
“Four hundred thirty one arrest, it blows my mind that that could have been 431 crashes,” said Russo in disgust.Erie County made more than 34000 D.W.I. arrests in 2008. Repeat offenders and their casualties also have public safety officials on alert.
“The tragedies of the last two weeks are just a sad example of what’s occurring all over the country. We’ve lost three young people and a police officer due to drunk driving,” Erie County Central Police Commissioner Peter M. Zito.