The fight for 'Andrew's Law': A mother's mission to prevent drunk driving fatalities
Family fighting for tougher drunk driving laws
Last week's deadly crash into a Long Island nail salon by an alleged drunk driver brought back painful memories for a mom who similarly lost her son. FOX 5 NY's Jodi Goldberg spoke to Alisa McMorris about her story as she fights for change with a roadway safety bill.
NEW YORK - The deadly crash into a Long Island nail salon by an alleged drunk driver last week has renewed one family's focus on passing a law to make the state's roads safer for everyone.
The bill is known as "Andrew's Law," named after 12-year-old Andrew McMorris, who died in 2018 when a drunk driver killed him while he was hiking with his Boy Scout troop.
This year Andrew would have graduated from high school, but the McMorris family accepted a diploma in his honor.
When McMorris heard about the alleged drunk driver who plowed through a nail salon last Friday in Deer Park, killing four and injuring ten, the wounds from her loss reopened.
"I feel so sad for the families because I know what they are experiencing, this horrifying why, why," she said.
McMorris had hoped her son’s life would have been among the last lost.
"Andrew's Law" would be a roadway safety bill for New York that would make aggravated vehicular homicide a violent crime. It would also ensure that sentences run consecutively not concurrently, and reduce the amount of time it takes to get a blood alcohol level of an offender when a death or injury has occurred.
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According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, every 79 seconds someone in the U.S. is killed or injured in a drunk driving crash.
"It hurts again, and I cry because it's in a reality it hasn't ended," she said.
"I have a hole the size of Andrew in my heart that will never be filled, but I try to fill around the hole to make sure no one has to experience this," McMorris said.
She feels for the families of the victims mourning the loss of their loved ones.
"I want to embrace them and say sorry they have to experience this too and take a breath and a step forward," she said.
The McMorris family is hoping for the passage of "Andrew's Law" in the next legislative session.