Mothers Against Drunk Driving walk held at Jones Beach for loved ones killed by impaired drivers

Central Islip resident Lynne Pallmeyer had a picture of her late sister, Karen Rogers-Holden, pinned on her chest at a Sunday walk to commemorate friends and loved ones killed in crashes with drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol.

In 2016, Rogers-Holden was a passenger in a vehicle and on a road trip from Long Island to Virginia to help paint her eldest son’s new apartment. As she sat in the back seat at a red light, an impaired driver barreled into the back of the vehicle. Rogers-Holden, 56, died.  

"I miss her all the time, but I know that I ... feel her with me all the time," said Pallmeyer, adding that her sister was also her best friend. "I know that she’s the one who’s giving me the strength, because that’s how she was."

Pallmeyer joined nearly 100 others Sunday at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater to take part in the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) walk. The Walk Like MADD Long Island event sought to raise money for the nonprofit’s victim services that include helping loved ones with guidance and emotional support as they go through the justice system.

MADD said it is also advocating in Albany for several legislative items, including a bill to reduce the current legal alcohol limit to drive, 0.08%.

"What we hope that people will take away from this walk is that no one is immune to drunk driving, and that it can happen at any time to anyone," said Paige Carbone, regional executive director at MADD New York.

Newsday has reported that more than 2,100 people were killed in traffic crashes on Long Island between 2013 and 2023, citing data from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research in Albany.

Traffic crashes on the Island left an additional 16,000 people with severe injuries, Newsday reported. Among the reasons for the prevalence of the crashes was driving under the influence and how law enforcement executes traffic laws, according to Newsday's reporting.

At Sunday’s event, Queens resident Franklin Diaz was walking for his son, Justin.

Justin Diaz, 23, was headed to work at LaGuardia Airport on an early morning in February when an intoxicated driver ran a red light and struck the driver’s side of Diaz’s vehicle while going roughly 85 mph, the Queens District Attorney's Office said in a news release at the time. Diaz was later pronounced dead.

The driver of the vehicle was charged with several offenses including manslaughter, prosecutors said in the release.

Diaz's father said his son’s death has left the family heartbroken.

"He won't be able to excel in his career. I will never see him get married. I will never have grandchildren on behalf of Justin," Franklin Diaz said. "All that was stolen."

In 2018, Andrew McMorris was hiking on a residential road in Manorville with his father, John McMorris, and fellow Boy Scouts when a drunken driver hit the scouts.

Andrew, who was 12, died. Other scouts were severely injured.

"This was a ripple effect that was a giant tsunami that wiped our family down," said Andrew's mother, Alisa McMorris, on Sunday.

Both parents were at the walk advocating for legislation the Wading River residents hope will curb impaired driving. Alisa McMorris said the work keeps a promise she made on her son’s deathbed to not let others die the way her son did.

"And that is our promise: that we will speak, we will walk, we will talk while he cannot, and speak for other victims, so that this never happens again," she said.

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.