Flags Mark Victims of Drunk Driving

A field of flags appeared Monday in League City. It was a labor of love, and of loss.

Each of the 1,616 American flags represents one person who died last year in an alcohol-related accident, here in Texas.

The Bay Area Council on Drugs and Alcohol organized the "Healing Field" at Walter Hall Park.

According to BACODA, Texas leads the nation in drunk driving deaths, and Harris county leads Texas.

"To be there, watching those flags go up, one by one," said Andrea Schmauss. She shook her head.

Thirty-seven years ago, Schmauss's paratrooper fiance was preparing to propose to her, formally.

But hours before he could pop the question, she recalled, he was run down by a motorist who had been drinking.

"He jumped out of airplanes for a living, was heading to Vietnam," remembered Schmauss, "and he was killed crossing the street, by a drunk driver."

The field of flags packs a visual punch, said Shelly Higgins with BACODA.

"It makes you stand back and just take a deep breath, to know that this is senseless, senseless deaths."

The "Healing Field" officially opens Tuesday morning and will remain standing through Friday.

For details on the display, click here:

http://hstrial-kwells7.homestead.com/healingfieldpress.html

or here:

http://hstrial-kwells7.homestead.com/healingfieldindex.html