BY BILL LAITNER  
Free Press Staff Writer

Around Oakland County at fatal-crash sites, you'll see road signs that a Troy couple hope can fight drunken driving. In 1997, David and Gail Easterbrook of Troy lost their daughter in just such a crash. The following year, they paid $1,000 for 20 signs to be placed wherever people had died in crashes involving alcohol.

Yet, last fall, they were stunned by the disappearance of the very sign that meant the most -- the one where their daughter died. This week, after calls from the Free Press, county officials pledged to replace that sign -- no matter who had taken it down.

"I want my sign back!" Gail Easterbrook said last week, with a good-natured laugh. She was referring to the sign missing from the corner where her daughter, Ashley Easterbrook, and two other teens died -- at Crooks and Long Lake in Troy. The Easterbrooks said they and their friends had called city and county authorities about the missing sign, but found no one sympathetic.

The signs say: "Drunk Driving: You Can't Afford It." That's a slogan that David Easterbrook came up with after he found research showing that the threat of financial penalties changes the behavior of some drivers who drink.

Elsewhere, Oakland County official George Miller had seen permanent signs used to replace the makeshift memorials mourners leave at crash sites. Miller approved it for Oakland County, using the Easterbrooks' funding and slogan. Yet last fall, a repair crew apparently removed the sign at Crooks and Long Lake, said Miller, who heads the county health division.

"We think it got taken out when some contractor did some piping in that area," he said last week. "But I can tell you, it will be put back up."
Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission for Oakland County, also called and said, "Our sign shop is going to make one sign and replace that one, as soon as possible."