Dear editor,

Rep. Allen Farley’s recent article on AL.com about a lack of enforcement of the ignition interlock law was incredibly painful to read. How can judges choose to not enforce a law? License suspensions don’t work; ignition interlocks do. Why ignore that?

I am the mother of Andy Pugh who was killed on Monday, Aug. 12, 2013, exactly one month before his eighteenth birthday by a convicted DUI offender driving on a suspended license. He had just completed band camp and would have started his senior year at Beulah High School in Valley the next week.

The drunk driver, on a beer run, was driving 90 mph in a 45 mph zone on Lee County Road 270 when he blew through a four-way stop. He crossed the center line and literally drove over the cab of our son’s truck. Mr. Weldon — the drunk driver — also hit the car behind my son head-on, leaving that driver disabled. He has since been convicted of reckless murder and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Andy wanted to help people and had plans to pursue a career in healthcare. Andy was a decorated band member and an artist and poet. He was a rising star that was taken away before he got the chance to see how high he could rise.

I echo Rep. Farley in pleading with Alabama’s judges to enforce the law before someone else’s son’s star is darkened before his time to rise.

W. Jane Furgerson Mungle

Chapel Giraldeau, Mo.