Stories of Long Islanders killed by impaired, distracted drivers focus of Suffolk County educational trailer

At a school parking lot, a community event or elsewhere, an educational trailer carrying the stories of three lives cut short due to impaired or distracted driving will be making its way across Suffolk County.

On Monday morning, law enforcement officials, the families of those who were killed, community members and others unveiled the Kids, Cars & Consequences educational trailer at the Suffolk County police headquarters in Yaphank.

"We have an opportunity to reach young people before they get behind the wheel and help them understand that the choices that they make as drivers can mean the difference between life and death," said Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon at the event.

The exterior of the educational trailer bears images and stories of Andrew McMorris, a 12-year-old killed in 2018 after a drunken driver careened into his Boy Scout troop while they took a hike in Manorville. It also shows Timothy Carpenter, a 22-year-old killed after a driver high on fentanyl struck the vehicle in which he was a passenger, and Patrick Mapleson, a state Department of Transportation worker struck and killed in Eastport in 2006 by a cement truck driver who became distracted while fiddling for a water bottle. Altogether, the trailer seeks to send an uncompromising message: "One decision can change everything."

The trailer was created with the help of EAC Network, a Garden City-based social service nonprofit and paid for with the help of a $30,000 community grant from State Farm Insurance.

Rachel Lugo, division director for EAC Network’s community, education and economic services programs, said: "This trailer is an educational trailer that will travel throughout the communities and, hopefully, change the behavior of how people think and they act regarding drugged, drunk and distracted driving."

In 2024, Long Island saw roughly 850 vehicle substance-related crashes that led to either an injury or a death, according to data from the University of Albany’s Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research.

On Monday, families touched by the tragedy of losing their loved ones shared their stories, with the goal of changing drivers' actions before they turn to tragedy.

"My hope is that when people see this trailer, they don't just see three faces and three names. I hope they see three lives that matter, three families that were changed forever and three futures that were taken away," said Karen Torres, Mapleson's daughter.

Alisa McMorris, the mother of Andrew, noted that a "crash may happen in seconds, but the devastation lasts generations."

"When the trailer travels to schools and communities and events, I hope they see faces, learn the names, hear the stories," McMorris said. "I hope that it’s a powerful reminder that one reckless decision can destroy countless lives, but one responsible decision can save them."

The trailer includes stories of the three victims’ lives. It also displays notices saying, "Don’t drive impaired" and "killed by a drunk driver" next to an image of Andrew McMorris and "killed by a drugged driver" by Carpenter’s photo.

Inside the trailer, there is a blue vehicle, its air bags released. The front doors are detached, and the driver’s side is crushed inward.

Carpenter was a passenger in the vehicle, about a mile from his home in Centereach in 2023. His uncle Stacy Carpenter was behind the wheel when a man under the influence of fentanyl struck their vehicle. Timothy Carpenter, who was set to graduate from Stony Brook University, died. He wanted to be a biology teacher, his family said.

On Monday, his parents, Tim and Andrea Carpenter, stood before the trailer with the mangled vehicle inside, telling the story of their only son’s death and the toll it has taken on them.

The holidays that are no longer celebrated, replaced with the somber daily ritual of cemetery visits.

"We don’t have that much life these days," Andrea Carpenter said.

But with the Kids, Cars & Consequences trailer, she added, there is some semblance of hope — that another driver, perhaps on a different roadway, at a different time of day, might have seen their son’s story on this trailer, or the wreckage inside it, and make a different decision than the person who took their son's life.

"We hope to save even just one family from suffering and going through what we are going through," 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.