Cemetery not responsible for fixing crash damage; driver charged with DUI

Feb. 06--ALTON -- Owner of a car that sped up Monument Avenue and continued traveling over the lower steps up to Alton Cemetery had insurance, so his company likely will pay to replace the damaged railing.

"The car was insured, so I don't think the cemetery is going to be responsible for it (repairs)," said Don Huber, acting cemetery sexton and member of its board of directors.

Huber said he has a bid of $3,765 for the work.

Huber said the male passenger in the car was the owner of the sedan, and was injured in the Jan. 29 crash. Police on Tuesday did not have information on his condition.

Neighbors said they heard the car traveling at a high speed up hilly, brick Monument Avenue that ends at East Fifth Street and the main entrance to the cemetery. The dark colored sedan raced up the two lower steps of the cemetery stairway at about 1:15 a.m., mangling part of the stairway railing, and stopped on the landing.

There is a dozen more steps above the landing leading to the Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument with its towering, 110-foot-tall spire, and the cemetery beyond. Monument Avenue runs about two blocks north from East Broadway.

Pfc. Emily Hejna, public information officer at the Alton Police Department, said driver Rachel T. Rawlings, 29, of the 1300 block of East Fifth Street in Alton, is facing a charge of driving under the influence. Hejna said police also cited Rawlings with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and disobeying a yield sign.

In the days since the crash, someone removed the lower, damaged portion of the black, wrought iron railing. There is a yellow caution tape attached to the bottom of the upper, intact rail section that is leaning slightly. Leaked, black motor oil stains the concrete landing.

The constitution and bylaws for Alton Cemetery, also commonly referred to as City Cemetery, were adopted in 1840. It is the final resting place for Alton's early prominent families and business and industry leaders, many of whose names are familiar because of parks and streets that carry their names.

Among those interred in the cemetery is Elijah P. Lovejoy, the martyred abolitionist newspaper editor, and the Haskell family. The Haskells' name now is on a park, its city-owned house and young Lucy Haskell's playhouse in the 1200 block of Henry Street.

Telegraph correspondent Nathan Woodside provided information for this story.

Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_Weller

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