LINCOLN COUNTY – Call it the Hailey Zenk affect.

In 2023, 12 people were killed in Lincoln County in alcohol-related crashes, including three people in a car driven by Zenk, who was legally drunk and under the influence of marijuana at the time of the accident.

Those 12 fatalities in seven accidents accounted for nearly two-thirds of the record 19 traffic deaths in 2023.

Why The Decrease

But then in 2024, those numbers plummeted with only six fatalities overall and just one involving alcohol.

Lincoln County Sheriff Rick Harrell believes publicity surrounding Zenk’s case and awareness it created is the cause of the decrease.

“I think this year’s load number directly has to do with the awareness of more people in this community considering their own actions based on the tragedy that resulted from the previous year,” Harrell said at a recent unveiling of a sign commemorating the three teenagers killed in that February accident on Chantilly road. “As individuals, we are making better choices every day we get behind the wheel.”

The Sign

On a cloudy, overcast day in late December, the families of Kaeden Tyler, Emily McNees and William Flickinger came to the intersection of Highways W and 47 to unveil the sign with the pictures of their loved ones and a not-so-subtle reminder:

“The problem with drinking and driving is … the mourning after.”

“It doesn’t matter where you’re in the country. People are affected by drunk driving everywhere, and it’s devastating,” said Doug Meyer, Kaeden’s stepfather. “So we thought we’d get the community leaders around and to spread the awareness that it’s gotta stop.”

Meyer said they purchased a second banner and are looking for a location for it that will be highly visible.

For McNees’ mother, Lauren Hammond, she’s more concerned with the sign raising awareness for one person specifically.

“I want Hailey to see it mostly because I want her to see this and know that we’re actually doing something and people in this town do care about all three of these individuals,” Hammond said. “I’m, glad it’s up.”

An Important Message

Harrell applauded the families’ efforts because he said it simply reinforces the mindset that drunk driving is never acceptable.

“Just like the use of seat belts, that’s something a family decides they’re going to do because that’s what we do,” Harrell said. “If the family decides we won’t drink and drive, that’s not our upbringing and we just don’t accept that. So as a community, in a larger sense, we can do the same thing, by just deciding we will not put ourselves and others at risk because sometimes it has tragic consequences like you see here today.”

Harrell said when passing the sign, it gives parents a chance to have a “hard talk” conversation with their children.

“When you communicate to your children, it’s not a laughing matter, it’s something that has deadly consequences,” Harrell said. “When I spoke to my children about that, it’s a no holds barred conversation. It’s just, you will not do this. This is not what you will do.”

Harrell also reinforced Meyer’s assertion that most of us know someone impacted by drunk driving.

“I think this community has learned a valuable lesson but lest we forget,” he said. “We all had that classmate impacted by either reckless and or drunk driving and every generation has those, but then it seems like the next generation forgets the lessons learned by the past. So these events like today’s, that underscores those lessons and we need to keep these in the forefront of our lives.”