In ceremonies held July 22, state transportation officials and police departments throughout South Jersey paid tribute to Navy Ensign John Elliott of Egg Harbor Township on the 25th anniversary of his death, and the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers he inspired.
Officers from 24 police departments stood at attention by their HERO patrol cars as Bill Elliott, his wife Muriel and their daughter Jennifer laid a wreath at their son’s roadside memorial on Route 40 in Upper Pittsgrove Township. John Elliott was killed there on July 22, 2000, in a collision with a drunken driver, two months after graduating from the United States Naval Academy. The man who caused Ensign Elliott’s death, and also died in the crash, had been arrested three hours earlier by State Police, then released to a friend who enabled him to drive again while still intoxicated.
Earlier Tuesday, the Salem County Sheriff’s Department dedicated its new HERO cruiser, wrapped with the HERO Campaign’s distinctive blue and gold colors and the message, “Be a HERO. Be a Designated Driver.”
The HERO vehicles then formed a motorcade for the five-mile trip to the wreath presentation ceremony.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremonies, Michael Rizol, director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety (NJDHTS), applauded the Elliotts and the HERO Campaign for saving “countless lives by promoting the use of safe and sober designated drivers.”
He noted that 30,000 cars of drivers arrested for DUI are impounded each year under John’s Law, passed in Elliott’s memory in 2001. The NJDHTS provides funding for the HERO cruisers.
Salem County Deputy Sheriff John Cuzzupe said that he remembered the night of John Elliott’s crash and shared the Elliotts’ resolve to prevent other families from experiencing the dreaded “knock on the door” they received, informing them of their son’s death.
“John dreamed of serving his country,” said his father Bill, chairman and co-founder of the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign with his wife Muriel. “Now saving lives will be his legacy.”
The HERO Campaign promotes its message of safe and sober designated driving in partnership with prevention agencies, high schools, colleges, law enforcement, bars and taverns and professional sports teams. In his memory, John’s Law in N.J. requires police to impound the cars of drunken drivers for 12 hours. In 2017, the section of Route 40 where he was killed was renamed the John R. Elliott Memorial Highway. In November 2024, the N.J. Department of Transportation dedicated the new intersection connecting I-295 with Route 42 in Camden County as the John R. Elliott Memorial Interchange.
