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SCHENECTADY
Tree highlights impact of drinking, driving
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.net

    Trees around the region have a fresh coat of white today with the latest winter storm.
    But there is one tree in particular that residents should hope remains white, even in the heat of summer.
    Members of the Schenectadybased anti-drunk-driving group RID Friday unveiled the “Safety Tree.”
    The tree is located at Ellis Hospital and is decorated with white Christmas lights. For each drunk driving fatality in Schenectady County in the coming years, group members will turn one bulb red.
    “The impact is powerful,” RIDUSA founder Doris Aiken said. “Coming down Nott Street toward the hospital, you can’t escape it.”
    The evergreen tree is located on hospital grounds at the corner of Nott Street and Rosa Road. It is the result of a partnership among the group, Remove Intoxicated Drivers and Ellis.
    It was announced at an event Friday marking RID’s 30th anniversary. Aiken helped found the group in February 1978, two months after a drunk driver killed two Scotia teens. The group was credited with helping change state law limit-GOT A NEWS TIP?
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ing drunk driving pleas.
    The Safety Tree was planted last fall; a plaque was placed explaining its aim last week, Aiken said.
    The effort follows temporary efforts in previous years.
    In 1997, similar trees were lit by some 115 RID groups nationwide. That effort followed a year where seven teens and young adults in the Scotia-Glenville area died in alcohol-related incidents.
    Another effort came in 2003, marking National Drunk and Drugged Driving Month.
    Recent years have seen few drunk-driving fatalities. Two people died in 2006 in drunk driving incidents on county roads, Aiken said.
    Last year saw no drunk-driving deaths. Word, however, came Friday of an indictment of a Johnstown man, accused of drugged driving in an August Glenville crash that killed one.
    In that case, Mark T. Pettit, 39, of 311 West Main St., Johnstown, faces vehicular manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide counts.
    The current effort is to be promoted to RID’s other chapters. The project, she said, is aimed at reminding the public that drunk driving is still a menace.
    “It’s a permanent billboard,” Aiken said, “so 10 years from now you can look at the tree and see how safe you were.”