Friends and family of Jody Bagnariol and Elisabeth Rudolph pose with emergency first responders as part of a memorial ceremony on Sunday afternoon. The memorial traffic sign was later erected on the southbound entrance ramp to I-5 at Exit 68.
A pair of Washington State Patrolman pay their respects as a new memorial traffic sign dedicated to Jody Bagnariol and Elisabeth Rudolph receives finishing touches along I-5 on Sunday.
Family members of the deceased perform an honorary ceremony on the back of a memorial traffic sign dedicated to Jody Bagnariol and Elisabeth Rudolph before it was erected at Exit 68 on I-5 Sunday afternoon.
Department of Transportation workers are assisted by a Washington State Patrolman on Sunday afternoon as they unveil a memorial traffic sign dedicated to Jody Bagnariol and Elisabeth Rudolph. The women were killed on I-5 in Lewis County last year by a distracted driver.
On Sunday, roughly 100 people came out to Exit 68 along Interstate 5 in Lewis County in order to pay their respects to Jody Bagnariol and Elisabeth Rudolph.
The women, who were best friends, were killed on July 16, 2016, while stopped in I-5 traffic near the exit when their car was struck from behind by another vehicle. The occupants of the other vehicle had been taking cellphone photos in order to document their travels and were not aware that traffic had stopped when the collision occurred at an estimated 76 miles per hour.
“It was supposed to be just another day,” said Gina Bagnariol-Benavides, sister to Jody Bagnariol, who noted that Jody and Rudolph were on a road trip to Portland while the occupants of the other vehicle were making their way to the beach. “Through no malice on anyone’s part, but through a series of bad, really bad choices, we’re here today to memorize these two women.”
With a throng of local emergency responders on hand Sunday, that memorial took the physical form of a traffic sign that was erected alongside the southbound on-ramp at Exit 68. The sign reads “Please Drive Safely,” and bears the names of both Bagnariol and Rudolph as a reminder of the dire consequences of distracted driving.
Bagnariol-Benavides heaped praise on the first responders in attendance, many of whom were at the scene of her sister’s fatal accident, for their dedication to saving lives and for their actions to comfort her sister in her final moments. She also extended her appreciation to witnesses who stopped their own vehicles in order to lend aid to all of the parties injured in the accident. Although she regrets the loss of her sister, Bagnariol-Benavides was not seeking any sort of vengeance Sunday. She was simply hopeful that the senseless loss of her loved one could help to bring meaningful change to the habits of drivers in Washington.
“I will continue to fight to get this information out,” said Bagnariol-Benavides, who noted that she takes her message to schools and other youth forums in order to communicate the importance of making safe decisions to the next round of drivers getting ready to hit the road. “We have to go back to treating the cellphone as the tool it was designed for. It was never designed to be used behind the wheel of a car.”
In addition to representatives from local fire agencies, the Washington State Patrol and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, the director of the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission, Darrin T. Grondel, was on hand for the ceremony. Grondel has been instrumental in the creation of the newest distracted driving laws in Washington, which are set to take effect on July 23. The new law prohibits drivers from holding a cellphone in their hands at any time while they are driving. According to Grondel, that change is intended to address the multiple functions and capabilities of today’s cellphones, whereas the current law was more focused on preventing drivers from talking or texting on their phones while behind the wheel. Grondel said that when that law came out in 2007, he was confident that it was thorough enough to promote safety. However, he noted that the first iPhone was released just two months after that law went into effect, which created a seismic shift in the way that cellphones would wind up being utilized.
“I just don’t think we saw what technology could do in the future,” explained Grondell.
By banishing cellphones from the hands of drivers completely, Grondell believes the new law will eliminate the need for an arms race of sorts where new laws are required in order to legislate new behaviors by drivers as technology changes.
“Unfortunately it’s through tragedy that change often occurs,” said Grondel, who noted that Washington kicked off a brand new “On the Road, Off the Phone” safety campaign on Monday in advance of the rollout of the new distracted driving law.
With tears in her eyes and family, friends and strangers alike at her side on Sunday, Bagnariol-Benavides expressed optimism that progress will ultimately be made on the issue of distracted driving. The large turnout of private citizens, state, county and local agencies at the memorial dedication only served to buffer that optimism as final preparations were being made to erect her sister’s memorial sign.
“I was told that there might be a first responder or two that would show up, but this has far exceeded my expectations,” said Bagnariol-Benavides.
