It happened Feb. 16, 2019.

My niece’s brother-in-law Chris Eckman and his wife, Deana Eckman, were driving home from a family party, close to their home in Delaware County, when a drunk driver with five previous DUI convictions crashed into their car head on, injuring Chris and killing Deana.

Deana was only 45 years old.

A witness to the accident said he was traveling south on Route 452, a two-lane highway, and heard a loud engine behind him. He said he then saw the vehicle, which alternated between riding close to his bumper then coasting. The witness said he felt the driver was trying to run him off the road and believed he had no choice but to keep driving because if he pressed his brake, they would crash.

The driver finally shifted into the oncoming traffic lane and pulled up next to the witness, who said he thought the driver may pull a gun. Instead, the driver put his foot on the gas and took off at full speed in the northbound lane. That’s when the witness heard screams and the crash.

Since this is extended family, I had socialized with Chris and Deana many times and was devastated when I heard the news.

The driver was sentenced to 24 to 51 years in prison in November 2021 following an appeal to his 2019 sentence.

Shortly after the crash, Deana’s parents, Roseann and Richard DeRosa, began asking how a person with five previous DUI convictions could still be driving.

Channeling their grief into action, the DeRosa family began the task of ensuring something like this never happens again. They began working with legislators to create a law to prevent repeat DUI offenders from driving.

On Aug. 28, 2019, state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9, introduced Deana’s Law, also known as Senate Bill No. 773, which is numbered in honor of Deana’s birthday. After multiple versions of this law, most recently by state Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168th, Gov. Tom Wolf signed the legislation into law July 15.

According to Quinn, the 30-year-old driver had been convicted of DUI five times in the nine years preceding Deana’s death. He served sentences for his fourth and fifth DUIs concurrently, and his driver’s license was suspended.

Quinn stressed the importance of the requirements for consecutive sentences included in the bill.

“Had the court imposed consecutive sentences on Deana Eckman’s murder[er], he would have still been imprisoned the night she was killed. Had Deana’s killer been sentenced consecutively, Deana would be alive today, and perhaps he would have gotten the help he needed while in prison.”

“The criminal justice system failed our family because the driver was given concurrent, rather than consecutive, sentences on his fourth and fifth offenses,” Roseann DeRosa said.

In a news release to The Press, AAA officials thanked the members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly for passing a bill to improve the safety and livelihood of Pennsylvania drivers against impaired drivers who threaten the lives of their fellow drivers every day. AAA supports enactment and vigorous enforcement of laws against driving under the influence of any intoxicating substance. Along with distracted drivers and aggressive drivers, motorists rank impaired drivers among their top concerns on the highway.

“It is an unfortunate, but true, fact that there are too many individuals who drive while impaired - either under the influence of a substance or under the influence of alcohol,” Theresa Podguski, director of legislative affairs, AAA East Central, said. “We applaud the legislature for taking this step toward keeping Pennsylvania’s roads safe for motorists.”

According to AAA, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crash statistics show that since 2016, alcohol-related crashes have claimed 1,823 lives, an average of more than 300 fatalities a year. Eighty-nine percent of the alcohol-related fatalities were drivers and occupants in the vehicle driven by the impaired driver; however, all highway users are at risk.

AAA said Deana’s Law does the following:

• Increases some of the gradings for DUI offenses and requires consecutive sentencing for certain repeat DUI offenders. This would mean that if an individual is sentenced for a DUI offense and the individual has two or more prior offenses, this individual would serve this sentence consecutively with any other sentence the individual is serving. Current law does not contain consecutive sentencing requirements for DUI convictions.

• An individual who refuses a chemical or breath test or takes the breathalyzer test and has a BAC of 0.16 or higher or is under the influence of a controlled substance and has the following number of prior offenses would commit the following: a third-degree felony for two prior offenses (no change from current law), a second-degree felony for three prior offenses (this is an increase in penalty from current law, as it is currently a third-degree felony) and ?a second-degree felony and a sentencing enhancement for four or more prior offenses (this is an increase in penalty from current law, as it is currently a third-degree felony).

This legislation was signed into law as Act 59 of 2022. The provisions set forth in the new law become effective Nov. 8.

“Our passion for Deana’s Law is to prevent this tragedy from happening to other families and bring awareness to the many people who drive impaired. Every DUI is a potential homicide,” Roseann DeRosa said after Wolf signed the legislation.

On behalf of my extended family, I thank the courts, for providing justice for the family by sentencing the driver to prison for a long time, and the legislators, for honoring Deana and taking one step closer to making sure this doesn’t happen to another family.

Debbie Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press