SPOKANE — A twisted pile of steel that used to be a pickup truck is a reminder of the perils of drinking and driving.
Damon Mattozzi was 21 when he died nine years ago after his truck veered off Highway 291 and struck a tree.
His family keeps the truck on display at milepost 19 to deter others from driving under the influence.
“If I walk out there, that’s when I feel the pain,” said Darren Mattozzi, 29, Damon’s younger brother. “If it makes at least one person think about their actions, then it does its job, and his death was not in vain.”
Damon Mattozzi had turned 21 just before the crash on July 18, 1999. He had been drinking heavily that day at a bar and later got into a fight with friends before trying to make it home, Darren Mattozzi said.
Darren and their mother, Katherine, were driving home when they passed an ambulance going the other way. “I guess it was a mother’s instinct. I think she kind of knew. She just started crying,” Mattozzi said.
At the crash scene, they were told to rush to the hospital because Damon was not going to live.
“When I arrived, the first thing I saw was a chaplain, so I knew we were in trouble,” Mattozzi said.
Damon was brain-dead and the family took him off life support the next day.
Some people have asked the family to remove the twisted hulk, saying enough time had passed, but the truck also draws visits from driver’s education classes, notes to Damon and trinkets.
It also serves as a motivational pitch for Mattozzi, who works as drug abuse and violence prevention coordinator for Lincoln County.
“His death prompted me to dedicate my life to this field. It’s a constant reminder that drunk driving is 100 percent preventable,” he said. “That’s why we will never move it, because it is such a powerful thing.”
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