Sober-driving HERO campaign marks 24th anniversary of namesake’s death

Monday marks the 24th anniversary of the death of U.S. Navy Ensign John R. Elliott, of Egg Harbor Township, in an accident caused by a drunken driver while Elliott was returning home from the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland for his mother’s birthday celebration.

His death inspired the HERO Campaign, which promotes the use of designated drivers.

“We wanted there to be a legacy for John that related to what happened to him and trying to prevent it from happening to other families,” Bill Elliott said on the 20th anniversary of his son’s death in 2020. “We immediately knew we wanted to do something to remember John in a positive way because people get forgotten as things recede into the past.”

John Elliott graduated from the Naval Academy two months before the accident and was planning to enter Naval Flight School in the fall, his family said.

In addition to spurring the creation of the HERO Campaign, his death provided the basis for what would become John’s Law, a 2001 measure that changed the liability surrounding releasing suspected drunken drivers from custody.

In the accident that took Elliott’s life, the intoxicated driver, Michael Pangle, of Woodstown, Salem County, had been released from custody into the care of another person who allowed him to get back behind the wheel of a car, which then resulted in the fatal collision on Route 40 in Upper Pittsgrove Township.

Pangle also died in the crash. John Elliott’s girlfriend, Kristen Hohenwarter, was injured.

A provision of John’s Law was that anyone who takes an intoxicated driver into their care would face criminal and civil liability for letting the intoxicated person behind the wheel of a vehicle before they sobered up. The law also mandated a 12-hour vehicle impoundment from the time of arrest to prevent the intoxicated person from driving again.

State Police estimate 30,000 vehicles of DUI suspects are impounded annually under John’s Law, according to a news release from the HERO Campaign.

The HERO Campaign’s work and John Elliott’s legacy can be seen all over South Jersey and beyond. This month, the Cape May Police Department became the 26th law enforcement agency in the state to unveil a HERO-branded patrol car to serve as a reminder to residents to use a designated driver when consuming alcoholic beverages.

“They’re the real life of the party and the cure for drunk driving,” Muriel Elliott said in comments supplied by the HERO Campaign.

The section of Route 40 in Salem County where Elliott was killed was renamed the John R. Elliott Memorial Highway in 2017. A gray granite cross built by volunteers from the New Jersey Bricklayers Council and Ironworkers Local 399 marks the crash site.

Meanwhile, a proposal to name the new connection between Interstate 295 and Route 42 in Camden County in memory of Elliott has passed both houses of the state Legislature and is awaiting Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Vince Polistina, R-Atlantic.

“Ensign Elliot exemplified true leadership and served this country with honor and distinction,” Polistina said this spring when the bill was passed. “In recognition of his service, this bill would formally commemorate his legacy by naming this newly built interchange as the Ensign John R. Elliott Memorial Interchange.”

The HERO campaign is sponsoring its annual summer HEROtini Challenge, a non-alcoholic beverage competition among 27 bars, casinos and restaurants along the Jersey Shore. The public can donate and vote for their favorite mocktail through Labor Day at herotini.org. This is the first year the campaign has held the competition since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

And the campaign’s partnerships extend to a number of schools and colleges, police departments, bars and taverns, and pro football and baseball stadiums.

For more information on the HERO Campaign, visit herocampaign.org.