Senate OKs honors for military, police and DUI victims

On Memorial Day, the Illinois Senate passed bills meant to honor U.S. military personnel and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty and people killed in drunken-driving accidents.

Senators agreed the governor should be required to order that flags flown at half-staff every time an Illinois resident is killed by hostile fire while in the U.S. military or as a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.

The flags would be flown at half-staff on the day of the person's funeral and the two previous days.

More than 130 military personnel from Illinois have been killed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Washington Post. Eight Illinois law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2006, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The Senate passed House Bill 3618 by a 54-0 vote on Monday.

The state of Illinois would help memorialize drunken-driving victims by erecting roadside markers under House Bill 1900, sent to Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday.

The measure, approved 54-0, allows relatives of those killed in drunken-driving accidents to apply for roadsign memorials erected by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

IDOT would maintain each sign for two years. The legislation specifies that the roadside markers would not be erected for any deceased motorist found to have been driving drunk.

The standardized signs will remind people of the consequences of drunken driving and improve road safety by replacing makeshift memorials many families erect near where someone died in a crash, said Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Naperville.

Jeremy Pelzer can be reached at (217) 782-3095 or at jeremy.pelzer@sj-r.com.