John and Alisa McMorris's Letter to the Editor in Riverhead News Review

John and Alisa McMorris penned a Letter to the Editor in the Riverhead News Review on July 15.

SEEING THE HEADLINES Wednesday morning of a bus driver who was arrested for DWI and multiple counts of Leandra’s Law horrified us. How can this be that people still find the need to drive while impaired and endanger the welfare of innocent children! 

It brings the pain of our son Andrew’s loss to the surface, and we sit in a pool of tears feeling like Andrew’s loss and so many others have been in vain. 

We are grateful the Scout Camp had youth protection in mind by having a staff member on all buses who followed protocol and got the bus and its occupants stopped without injury. 

This is why our family and the Andrew McMorris Foundation along with MADD are fighting so hard to get drunk driving prevention technology on all new vehicles as soon as possible. Technology exists today that could stop this, and we need Congress to pass legislation this year that would direct the national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA) to determine the best technology and start equipping all new vehicles in the next few years, including commercial vehicles like school buses and limousines. The Senate RIDE and House HALT acts will end drunk and impaired driving. 

We need Albany to act as well, yesterday’s outcome could have been so much worse and we need to not only enact tougher laws here in NY but put in safe guards to prevent tragedies from ever happening in the first place nationally.

If you want more information about the Ride and Halt acts log onto https://www.madd.org/get-involved/haltact or to learn more about Andrew and how to stop drunk and impaired driving log onto the www.andrewmcmorrisfoundation.org.

Alisa and John McMorris

Editor’s Note: The authors are the parents of Andrew McMorris, a scout killed by a drunk driver. The lodge at the Baiting Hollow Scout Camp bears his name. The McMorris family resides in Wading River.