Shannon Harton, 13, celebrated Father's Day a different way this year.
She and her mom and two brothers visited their dad's grave, just as they have for the past five years. But, she did something else. This year she helped catch drunken drivers.Harton doesn't want anyone else to lose their dad like she did.
That's why she joined Salt Lake Police, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Utah Highway Patrol and Salt Lake Neighborhood Watch in the Father's Day Against Drunk Driving DUI check Saturday night.
The sting resulted in 10 DUI arrests, up 25 percent from the arrests made in the Mother's Day against Drunk Driving operation.
Armed with mobile phones, 30 members of neighborhood mobile watch patrolled from 300 East to I-15 and from 2100 South to South Temple. Whenever they spotted a possible intoxicated driver they contacted police. Suspects were taken to the command post, 1385 S. State, and processed in the UHP "BATmobile" (mobile breath alcohol tester.)
Harton helped maintain the command post with her mother and other members of MADD. Harton and her mother spoke of Steve Harton, their father and husband.
He died in September of 1990. His wife, Connie, was seven months pregnant. It was 9:18 a.m.
A woman, who witnesses said was throwing whiskey bottles out of her windows as she drove, sped down the I-15 at 82 mph. She clipped the back end of Harton's Bronco II and sent it spinning. The car rolled five times.
"Our lives were so perfect and in the blink of an eye - in a split second - they were overturned," Connie Harton said. "He was such a wonderful father. His whole life revolved around his kids. They've really been robbed, we've all been robbed."
Shannon Harton's favorite thing to do with her dad was to go fishing. She also loved it when he'd come home, turn on the radio and dance around the house with her.
Her youngest brother, Colton, 5, who was born two months after his father's death, has a hard time understanding why he doesn't have a dad. Just a couple months ago he became upset because his brother and sister are in photos with their dad, but he isn't in any.
Recently, he told his mom, "I had the bestest dream. I dreamed my dad came back alive."
"It ripped my heart," said Connie Harton. "There's nothing you can do that can fix it."
But mother and daughter are working together to protect other families from the same loss. When they heard the news of the sting's first arrest they cheered.
Connie Harton said, "You know that arrest could easily have saved someone's life."