Topeka ? It was in his official capacity as Kansas’ attorney general that Phill Kline addressed a group that works to combat drunken driving. It was as an uncle whose teenage nephew died in an alcohol-related accident that he surprised the crowd.

Kline was the keynote speaker Saturday at the 17th annual candlelight vigil of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, held at a Topeka hotel.

MADD has dramatically affected society, Kline told about 25 people who gathered for the event.

“There is no greater remembrance than how we lead our lives,” he said. “Thank you for being vulnerable and working through your grief and making a difference.”

He then surprised everyone when he discussed the October 1990 alcohol-related accident that took the life of his 18-year-old nephew, Jimmy Kline.

“I don’t know how to handle the emotions,” he said.

In opening comments, Sandi Raines, the president of the Kaw Valley Chapter of MADD, told the group that it was comforting to be able to meet and talk with people who understood one another’s pain. Raines encouraged everyone present to take pride that they represent voices of victims.

“While a drunk driver can take away the body,” she said, “the life lives on because we won’t forget.”

Statistics found at www.madd.org show a somewhat steady decrease in alcohol-related deaths throughout the 1990s. However, those numbers began to rise in 2000.

An estimated 17,419 people died in the United States in alcohol-related accidents last year.