This web site uses elements
designed in Macromedia Flash.
If you cannot view some of the graphics,
you may need this free browser plug-in. Click here to
download it.
LIVES LOST: Some victims of drunken driving
accidents
on the
South Shore
Christine
Griffiths
Christine Griffiths, 28, of Randolph was a young mother, devoted
to her baby daughter, Michaela.
Coming home from a Bickford's restaurant the night of June 24,
2001, Griffiths told her friend she felt ill and asked her to pull
over on Route 128 in Randolph.
Standing in the breakdown lane, Griffiths was struck and killed
by a drunk driver.
William Foley, 40, of Braintree was sentenced to four years in
prison for Griffiths' death. It was his fifth drunken driving arrest.
Kristopher
Carew
At 17, Kristopher Carew had a lot of friends. He had so many that
at least 700 of them filled a church in Holbrook the day of his funeral.
Carew was killed Sept. 29, 2000, when a drunk driver plowed into
the car he was riding in. His twin brother, Nicholas, who was also
a passenger, was uninjured.
The driver, Richard Abbott, 28, of Holbrook, had a blood alcohol
level of 0.17 and at least one previous drunken driving conviction.
He was sentenced to four to five years in state prison.
Thomas
C. Picarello
A group of friends, former classmates at Don Bosco High School,
were passengers in the same car the night of Jan. 13, 2002, in
Milton.
When the car hit a utility pole, Thomas
C. Picarello, 21, formerly
of Hull, was thrown from the car and later died.
The driver, Andrew Pollack, 21, of Dedham, ran away.
Pollack already had two drunken driving arrests on his record.
He pleaded guilty to motor vehicle homicide and drunken driving
and got two years in jail.
Patrick Connolly
Patrick Connolly decided to catch a ride home after a party in
Milton with someone he hardly knew.
Connolly, 19, who was from Boston, was killed on Aug. 6, 2000,
when Joseph Burke, then 21, of Dorchester lost control of his 1987
Ford Mustang and it flipped over on Granite Avenue in Milton.
Burke was on probation in connection with a drunken driving charge
that had been continued without a finding a few months earlier
in Taunton District Court.
He was sentenced to five years in jail for the Connolly crash.
Melanie
Powell
It should have been a good day for Melanie Powell.
It was the middle of the summer, July 25, and Melanie, 13, of Marshfield,
had a birthday party to go to after spending the previous night at
a friend's house.
Later, walking to the beach with friends, Melanie was hit by a
car. She died of her injuries.
It was the second drunken driving arrest for the driver, Pamela
Murphy, 49, of Marshfield. A charge of motor vehicle homicide is
pending.
James
Broadbent Jr.
and Lisa Squillacioti
Hanson native James Broadbent Jr. and his fiancee, Lisa
Squillacioti,
were looking forward to marriage and children.
Their families said they loved to do volunteer work.
Broadbent, 32, the father of two, and Squillacioti, 30, were killed
by a drunk driver in Rockland as they drove home from a charity golf
tournament Sept. 22, 2001.
Police said the driver of the car, Russell Curran, 29, of Rockland,
had been drinking for hours that night.
He already had one conviction on his record.
Curran pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three to four years
in state prison.
Rose Smith
Rose Smith, 57, worked as a nursing assistant at the Bridgewater
Nursing Home on Route 104 until a few months before she died.
She was well liked. Co-workers said even after she left her job,
she occasionally checked up on the patients.
Smith, who lived alone and had no relatives, was killed May 27,
1998, when a drunk driver slammed into her car on Route 14 in Whitman.
The driver of the other car, Tara Dooley, then 24, of Pembroke,
had a previous drunken driving conviction.
Dooley was sentenced to 2½ years in jail.
Robert Fleming
In February 1999, Robert Fleming, 31, of Quincy was thrilled
to be starting a new construction job.
He and his wife, Pattie, were anxious to buy a home and start
a family, and he saw his new job as a ticket to their dreams.
He was killed Feb. 6 when a car driven by a friend, Charles J.
Gaziano, then 41, of Weymouth, flipped over on the Southeast Expressway
in Boston.
Gaziano had two previous drunken driving convictions.
He was sentenced to five years in prison.
"I don't have my best friend to grow old with," Pattie said then. "The
world will never be the same."