DUI initiative dedicated to fallen trooper

On March 27, 2008, a recent graduate of the Police Academy had just finished a shift at the Avondale barracks and was returning home to Lancaster when a woman with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit slammed into his Hyundai Elantra head-on.

imagesTrooper Kenton E. Iwaniec, a 24-year-old who was engaged to be married, died the following day of injuries he sustained in the crash. Just days earlier, the new trooper, who had quickly impressed his colleagues with his upbeat attitude and aptitude for the job, had been cleared for solo patrol after completing his training.

Iwaniec has not been forgotten, and this weekend’s area state police DUI enforcement initiative is dedicated to him. On Saturday, March 28 – seven years since Iwaniec’s death– his parents, Ken and Debby Iwaniec, who have launched a tireless crusade to fight drunk-driving, will address the nearly 130 state and local police officers participating in the program.

Called Operation Nighthawk, police said the program, which is in its 13th year, combines classroom instruction in DUI enforcement and motivational workshops with actual DUI roving patrols over two days. Starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 27, the classroom sessions will be held at the Downingtown Area School District administration building and will be followed by the roving enforcement detail from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.

State police said the program has been successful in helping remove impaired drivers from the roads, an effort that also saves lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drunk drivers kill nearly 30 people each day in the U.S.; this amounts to one death every 51 minutes.

In Pennsylvania, drunk-driving fatalities – 368 in 2013 – represented nearly a third of all total traffic deaths, a 9.6 percent decrease from the previous year, according to statistics maintained by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Comments

comments

Leave a Reply