Committee Approves Marker for Victim of a Drunk Driver

SACRAMENTO —  The Senate Transportation Committee, which last week rejected the creation of a statewide marker program to designate sites of drunk-driving fatalities, gave its approval Tuesday to a special memorial for a man killed by a drunk driver in Anaheim.

Over the objections of the state Department of Transportation, the committee approved a resolution by Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-La Habra), saying that the family of Jim Downing deserves permission to erect “a permanent non-religious memorial” near the site next to the Orange Freeway where Downing died in March, 1984.

The measure, approved on a 6-1 vote, now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

A year ago, on what would have been Downing’s 27th birthday, friends tried to honor his mother’s request and erect a three-foot white cross at the site of his death, off the Orange Freeway.

Eight months earlier, Downing’s younger brother was killed in a drunk-driving accident near Arlington, Tex., a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb.

His mother, Mary Anna Downing of Arlington, had asked his friends in Orange County to erect a cross identical to one that marks the spot of his brother’s death in Texas. But hours after they put it up, Caltrans workers took it down.

Johnson said that Caltrans was “incredibly insensitive” in its dealings with the Downing family. Caltrans officials, who successfully fought an attempt by Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) to begin a statewide marker program, said allowing the marker for Downing would be a bad precedent.

Johnson said Downing’s mother initially asked for a cross but will be satisfied with a non-religious marker.