Illinois Accident Law

Roadside memorial program launches with sign honoring local 5-year-old

Thursday was Adam Miller’s birthday. His mom, Cheryl, commemorated the occasion by picking up a bundle of helium balloons. She affixed them to a tree near Builta Elementary School, the District 204 campus in Bolingbrook that Adam attended.

Adam wasn’t there. The little boy — known for his ebullient nature; his love of trains, exceeded only by his love for his baby brother; his habit of walking on tip-toes because he was too excited to keep his feet flat on the ground — died in November 2008. He was buckled securely in the back seat of his family’s disabled car when it was rear-ended by a driver who had glanced away for a moment on Plainfield-Naperville Road. Police concluded the impact was made with no braking, at 55 mph.

On what would have been his first day as an 8-year-old, Adam’s mom and dad, John, and their son Eli, 4, gathered with local elected officials, friends and fellow activists at Naperville’s Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve, not far from the collision site. The event was held to unveil the first of what likely will be too many roadside markers honoring the memory of people who have died as a result of distracted driving.

DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin was among several to point out that cars today are about more than getting from place to place.

“I can think of no greater tragedy than losing a child,” said Cronin, a father of four, commending the Millers’ resolve to enact change even as they mourned. “I think we’ve become a culture where we’re very, very comfortable in our cars.”

Accidental activist

The roadside signs represent progress in the crusade to convince drivers to give their full attention to the road. Cheryl Miller unwittingly joined the endeavor not long after Adam died.

When Joseph Cox, the driver of the car that slammed into the Millers’ vehicle, was sentenced six months after the crash, there were no legal restrictions on driving while distracted. He was ticketed for speeding and failing to read the conditions of the road to avoid an accident, and his driver’s license was suspended for six months.

Livid, the Millers implored DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett to impose a penalty reflecting that Cox had taken a life. They received empathy from the prosecutor, but his hands were tied.

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The Revised statutes of the state of Illinois. 1880, Comprising the "Revised statutes of 1874," and all amendments thereto, together with the general acts of 1875, 1877 and 1879, being all the general statutes of the state, in force on the first day of February, 1880