My Story | All4UDad

On Friday, March 17, 2006, St. Patrick’s Day, I received a phone call that has forever changed my life. My father, Patrick Mapleson, was struck and killed by a distracted driver while working along the highway.

As a highway maintenance worker for the New York State Department of Transportation, he and his crew were filling in potholes on Sunrise Highway in Eastport, New York when a cement truck entered the work zone.

Distracted by a water bottle falling to the ground, the driver was careless and negligent by reaching down, taking his eyes off the road and veering his truck into the work zone.

One of my dad’s fellow crew member said, “And I looked up, and then I realized, he is not going to turn.”

He screamed “RUN, GET OUT OF THE WAY.” All the crew ran to the right but my dad ran to the left; right into the path of the truck.

The driver of the cement truck told me that when he looked back up he and my father locked eyes, then he ran him over and my dad was killed instantly.

Crew members said,

“It hit so hard and he was just thrown in the air.”

“When he finally came to rest…it was Pat, but it wasn’t Pat.”

“I don’t like to remember him that way…holding his dead hand on the side of the highway.”

And I saw a paramedic wiping down a gurney and the whole time I was screaming, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!”

Laurie Yannucci (Patrick’s Daughter)

The shock of my father’s death came the day after his 66th birthday.

My father was cheated from life that day and robbed from the next chapter of his life; retirement.

He worked his entire life for those golden years. All he ever wanted was to buy a small house on the water so he could fish, read and spend time with his family.

That was all taken away from him because of a distracted driver.

The last thing he said to me was, “I’ll see you Sunday, sweetheart.”

And what’s really hard is that, Sunday, where I saw him next was in his coffin.

I knew this crash was 100% preventable and felt strongly that I needed to do something. This began my journey as a safety advocate, speaker, and educator for teens, adults and organizations across New York and beyond.

I am deeply driven to prevent distracted driving crashes and deaths. Traveling from high school to high school, I have shared my father’s tragic death with tens of thousands of students and adults during driver’s education classes, school assemblies, peer leadership programs, church groups, rotary clubs and corporate organizations. I am single handedly waking up motorists on what it means to be a distracted driver and its deadly consequences.