Courier Post - February 24, 2012

Victim's sister on a crusade to save lives

WASHINGTON TWP. — Eight sessions. 800 sophomores. A schedule that started before 8 a.m.

It was all in a day’s work for Angela Donato, whose new reality includes public speaking in memory of her big sister. Toni Bolis — nine months pregnant with her second child — was killed June 1 when a driver who admitted being distracted collided with her truck on Pitman-Downer Road in Washington Township. The 28-year-old and her unborn baby boy were killed.
Angela and her sister, Annette, almost immediately became crusaders against texting and driving. So 22-year-old Angela was at the township high school Friday for sessions that began at 7:35 a.m.
At 10:45 a.m., the graduate student was about to start her fifth talk to sophomores who are currently learning about crucial decision-making.
“I believe in my heart my daughter Toni is giving her (Angela) the strength to do this,” said Toni’s mother, Mary Donato, her neck draped with a locket photo of her lost daughter. “If she were here, she would make this a crusade.”
“I’ve heard it four times now and phew …” health teacher Matt Groark said of the presentation as he vigorously shook his head. “It gets you every time.”
Groark organized the day’s program after meeting Angela and her family five months ago. Students and faculty all wore green T-shirts in honor of Toni; it was her favorite color.
After a brief AT&T video on the dangers of texting and driving, Angela told each group about what she calls her own “last day” of normalcy, May 31, when she, her mother and Annette accompanied Toni to her final ultrasound appointment. She stood next to a poster board of photos showing a vivid, vivacious Toni, the married mother of a 2-year-old girl.
Angela told the students how 21-year-old Daniel Pereira’s car crossed into Toni’s lane that night and struck her truck. She recalled how family members rushed from their nearby township homes and got to the scene before the police. She recalled how Toni’s left arm and head hung out the driver’s side window and how Pereira — sitting nearby — told the Donatos he was distracted by his cellphone.
“They worked on her on the side of the road for what seemed like forever,” recalled Angela, her voice never breaking.
Pereira, of Glassboro , has not been charged but an investigation into the accident is ongoing, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.
Angela said her sister and nephew likely died on impact. Toni and 8-pound, 2-ounce Ryan Jeffrey — now known as RJ — lay in the same casket at a funeral that drew more than 4,000 people. The baby was in his mother’s arms, dressed in his christening outfit.
“I don’t want this to be you,” Angela told the students. “I don’t want your parents to get that call.”
She recalled how she and her sisters once sat in the same high school and heard about the dangers of drinking and driving. Then she noted that while such deaths are down, accidents attributed to distracted driving have increased.
According to a 2009 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 5,474 people were killed nationally in crashes that involved distracted driving. Of those deaths, 995 involved cellphone use. Meanwhile, NHTSA research shows alcohol-related fatalities have fallen 25 percent since 1990.
“Put the phone down,” Angela said, as a cell rang in the background, ironic proof of the insistent technology Donato is up against. The New York Times reported in December the average American teen sends or receives 75 text messages a day.
Brittanie Yanzuk of Haddon Township is a friend of Angela’s who manned a table Friday where students could buy green ribbons and donate to the foundation named for Bolis and her son. One sophomore, she said, dropped $65 into the donation box.
“Hopefully, they’ll take into consideration how they can lose their lives,” said Yanzuk, whose own sister was killed in a drinking-and-driving accident.
“I think this has had an effect on quite a few of them,” health teacher Barbara McBrearty remarked as students quietly left the gym in a stream of green.
“These kids think they’re invincible.”

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