Mother at DUI-prevention event tells of the loss of her son
Child, 5, was killed by a motorist fleeing from the police.
Marisella Readon’s 5-yearold son Jayden was just trying to get to a safe place to play when he was killed, one of the many lives lost each year in crashes involving impaired drivers — something state officials hope to draw attention to during the b u s y h o l i - d ay t r ave l season.
That’s the goal of Impaired Driving Prevention Month, which was highlighted at an event Friday focusing on traffic fatalities. The Florida Highway Patrol already is ramping up DUI checkpoints, and said it will add more before Christmas and New Year’s.
Readon, of Boynton Beach, spoke at the Dori Slosberg Foundation’s DUI 0 Tolerance event in Boca Raton, held to remember those killed by impaired drivers and honor the first responders who work with victims and their families.
Jayden Readon was killed in February when 20-yearold Lex Eugene — who later was charged with heroin possession — lost control of his car while fleeing Boynton Beach police.
Eugene’s Buick SUV struck Jayden, who was taking an a f t e r noon wal k wi t h hi s grandparents to an empty lot where he could play, away from traffic, Marisella Readon said.
Just one of many struggles she has faced since losing Jayden: discussing his loss with her three other children.
“My son thinks his brother’s at school every single day,” she said, crying as she spoke before a crowd filled with law enforcement officers and families and friends of other victims of impaired drivers. “How can you tell a 3-year-old that your big brother isn’t at school?”
She called for stiffer penalties for people charged with vehicular homicide. “We need to keep these criminals off of our streets,” she said.
There were 550 drug- or alcohol-related crashes in Florida in December last year — a 4 percent decrease from December 2014, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
But while the number of crashes was down, the number of fatalities was up: There were 120 deaths in wrecks involving impaired drivers last year, up 11 percent from the year before.
Former state Rep. Irv Slosberg launched the Slosberg Foundation after his daughter, Dori, was ki l l ed i n a violent crash on Palmetto Park Road in 1996. February marked 20 years since the wreck, which killed four other teens.
He noted the rise in fatal alcohol- and drug-related crashes from 2014 to last year.
The number of fatal wrecks where alcohol was confirmed went up nearly 11 percent, from 416 in 2014 to 460 last year, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The number of fatal crashes where drugs were a confirmed factor went up even higher — about 29 percent, from 198 in 2014 to 256 last year.
“The numbers are going through the roof,” Slosberg said. “You think to yourself, ‘Wow, what’s going on?’ Well, we’ve got an epidemic going on.”
Marisella Readon said she doesn’t want to be in “the club” of parents who have lost their children to drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol — but it’s still where she finds herself. With tears rolling down her face, she told the crowd that she will continue to come to events like the one hosted by the Slosberg Foundation.
“I consider this so unfair,” she said, adding later, “Even though you don’t want to be here, it’s a reminder we aren’t alone.”
Ac c o r d i n g t o t h e U. S . Department of Transportation, Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s are the top long-distance travel periods each year. More than 90 percent of those travelers take a personal vehicle, the DOT reports.
A A A’s Tow t o G o p r o - gram, a free service in Flor- ida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, gets impaired drivers off the road by giving them and their cars rides home via AAA tow trucks. For the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, it will be provided from Dec. 23 to 6 a.m. Jan. 2.
Fo r more i n f o r mat i o n about Tow to Go, call 855286-9246.