Peter Barrese: Truck driver's life changed forever

Peter Barrese had a plan: get to work as a sewage truck driver in Queens early in the morning and return home to West Babylon in time to help his wife, Debra, buy groceries for a Sunday evening dinner with their four grown children.

But plans for Aug. 10, 2008 - and the rest of Barrese's life - were upended when a drunken driver got on the Long Island Expressway going east in the westbound lanes and slammed into his truck in Old Westbury, near Exit 39 for Glen Cove Road.

"I can't believe it sometimes," Barrese, now 52, said. "I woke up one morning, went to work and my life got changed around."

There was so little time to react that Barrese remembers almost nothing from the crash, which happened just before 6 a.m. He saw lights coming at him from the exit ramp to his right and then he felt himself being tossed about.

Before he lost consciousness, he thought about dying. "I thought it was all over for me," Barrese said.

He woke up in an ambulance headed for North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. He suffered bruising on his brain, a torn rotator cuff, crushed discs in his neck and nerve damage in his left arm, hand and his back.

The other driver - William H. McCarthy, now 40, of Huntington - pleaded guilty last year to assault, driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and entering or exiting a highway illegally. He is serving a sentence of 2 to 6 years.

Prosecutors said McCarthy, heading home from a party in Long Beach, drove past six "Wrong Way" signs, both on the westbound service road and on the Exit 39 ramp, before heading east into traffic and slamming into Barrese's truck. His crash injuries were minor.

The collision has taken a deep emotional, physical and financial toll on Barrese. The extensive injuries forced him to quit his $80,000-a-year union job and go on Social Security disability and workers' compensation. He recently lost COBRA health insurance coverage and must now buy his own.

Lawyers told Barrese a lawsuit would be fruitless because McCarthy carried minimal insurance, and had no personal assets of value. Barrese and his wife of 32 years have turned to their children for financial help.

Perhaps worst of all, Barrese said he feels helpless. A broad-shouldered, muscular man with working-class Brooklyn roots, Barrese can't make a living, lift heavy objects or even get a good night's sleep. He can't make a fist with his left hand nor walk far without tiring. After 50 years of good health, he must pay regular visits to four doctors, and he has a laundry list of daily medications.

A truck driver since he was 17, Barrese said he feels paranoid driving now and tries to avoid the highways. He finds himself suddenly angry for no reason and is seeing a therapist, he said.

Only thoughts of his family help him as he struggles through each day.

"I just try," he said. "Try every day to try to get a little bit stronger for them."