CBS News Albany: Long Island mother advocates for safer driving after losing son to drunk driver
By Tom Eschen - Link to Original Article
November 22, 2023
Alisa McMorris smiles when she talks about her son Andrew, who, in his 12 years, found several passions in life.
"My son Andrew was what we call a renaissance man...we believed him to be an old soul," she says. "He lived far beyond his years at 12 years old, he was a painter, artist, musician."
He even took flight lessons, mixing all of that in with being a boy scout as well. Andrew's life was cut short in September of 2018, when he was killed by a drunk driver.
"That's the emptiness that we feel now around the holidays when we get together," Alisa McMorris says. "We ask what is missing? Andrew is missing."
Alisa has since dedicated her life working to prevent more tragedies like the one she's experienced. She's working to create change through legislation, but also culturally, hoping to change minds and hearts. Wednesday, on Thanksgiving Eve, is a time she hopes her message is heard loud and clear.
"What makes this different than say New Year's Eve or others, those have plans," she says. "This night there usually doesn't have a plan because people kind of roll in together. What I want to implore people to do is to make a plan before you leave your house, letting my trauma sit long enough, so you make a different choice tonight."
Wednesday night, law enforcement agencies across New York State starting using enhanced, high visibility patrols in the effort of stopping impaired driving.
The National Safety Council estimates more than 500 people have the potential to be killed due to impaired driving over the Thanksgiving holiday. From 2019 to 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says drunk driving deaths went up 52 percent in New York State.
In the year 2021, 36 percent of all fatal crashes in New York involved an alcohol-impaired driver.
"That number is astounding," Captain Dan Morley from the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office, says. "It's completely unacceptable, and we need to do something about it."
On Wednesday, the Saratoga County Sheriff's Department deployed extra patrols to facilitate a "saturation-type" situation. Captain Morley says not just alcohol, but now drugged driving is becoming a bigger part of the problem.
"We're finding that marijuana-impaired driving, at least on our victim impact panels, has surpassed alcohol-impaired driving. There seems to be a misconception among some people that smoking marijuana makes you a better driver, which is unequivocally false."
The issue of drug-impaired driving has drawn attention from advocates and state lawmakers, who recently held an Assembly hearing to have a dialogue with stakeholders regarding the issue.
"One of the big keys that we've focused on is the Drug Recognition Expert program, we've had a couple people go through the training recently so we've had that as an additional resource if there's a question of what somebody might be under the influence of," Morley says.