Death of friend's teen brother in 1992 spurs Holmdel cop to make the roads safer
Matthew Menosky never knew John “Jack” Misdom Jr., killed at the age of 16 by a drunk driver while he walked along Route 36 in Middletown in February 1992.
But Menosky has seen the effect that the emotional trauma of Jack’s death has had on Alex Misdom, Jack's younger brother and Menosky’s friend.
It's Alex Misdom's long-held grief and that of others like him that inspired Menosky, a traffic safety officer for Holmdel Township Police Department, to think of how to make people safer.
He came up with a program called Goal: Zero, which aims to raise awareness of distracted and impaired driving through education and enforcement details to cut the traffic death toll.
"When people see the headlines of a traffic fatality, that's all they'll really see," Menosky said. "No one gets to see the faces behind it and the ripple effect that these crashes have. Years later, it still rips families apart."
On Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., a group of 14 police departments led by Holmdel will be out on traffic enforcement on the 30 miles of Route 35 in Monmouth County as part of Goal: Zero.
Aberdeen, Belmar, Brielle, Eatontown, Hazlet, Holmdel, Keyport, Middletown, Ocean, Neptune, Neptune City, Red Bank, Shrewsbury and Wall will take part in the detail.
On Feb. 21, 26 police officers from seven agencies participated in a Goal: Zero traffic detail on Route 34 in Monmouth County. They stopped 221 vehicles and handed out 125 summonses, including 24 for speeding, 18 for cell phone violations, and 9 for careless driving. Departments in Aberdeen, Colts Neck, Howell, Marlboro, Matawan and Wall were on patrol with Holmdel.
"Traffic safety culture and driving behaviors need to change in order to keep people alive on New Jersey roadways," Menosky said.
Menosky's logo for the program includes a bright neon green backing to signify pedestrian and traffic safety with a black bar placed across it as a symbol of mourning.
12 beers
Jack Misdom, who lived with his mother in North Middletown, was walking along the shoulder of Route 36 in the Navesink section of Middletown, heading from his father's home in Atlantic Highlands to a friend's house in Highlands about 7:20 p.m. on Feb. 7, 1992, when he was struck and killed, according to an Asbury Park Press story at the time.
The driver, Paul K. Gross, 50, of Sea Bright, a plumbing contractor, had a .218 blood alcohol level at the time of the crash, according to the Press story. The legal limit then was .10. Prosecutors said he would have had to drink 12 beers to reach that level of intoxication, the article said.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a manslaughter charge, according to the Press story.
Jack, a sophomore at Middletown High School North, enjoyed the reputation of being a heartthrob, a funny kid who always joked around, someone who stuck up for the underdog and a person who showed kindness to many, his brother Alex said.
Hundreds of young people turned out for Jack's funeral, he said.
A few weeks later, a young boy knocked on the family's door. He told them that not long before Jack died, the boy was being bullied by a half dozen boys, all of them bigger than him, as he walked home from school.
"Jack stepped in between them," he recalled the boy telling him and his family. "And he said, 'If you have a problem with him, you have a problem with me. And if I find out you're messing with him, you're going to deal with me.'"
The group of toughs stood down, the boy told the family. They heard other stories of kind deeds Jack carried out that he never mentioned.
"He was an amazing person. He was my hero," Alex said. "In a sense, he was too good for this world."
The only words he could think of to describe the effect of Jack's death on him was one: nightmare.
Alex, 14 at the time, was the last one to see Jack.
"I had a lot of problems. I hated life and I didn't care," he said. "I'd show up to school and I'd fall asleep in class. I missed him too much. It took me a long time to care about my life again"
The toll on his entire family was deep.
"Jack was the glue of the family," he said. "I remember hearing my mom crying herself to sleep, my dad screaming."
Alex eventually moved in with relatives in Florida. He couldn't bear to see Jack's friends at Middletown North.
"It was a constant reminder of that hell," he said. "I'd see the same look in their eyes that I saw at the funeral."
Alex was eventually diagnosed with PTSD.
He is now caring for his mother in Arizona.
Death toll
Goal: Zero was rolled out as the traffic death toll in New Jersey has continued to rise.
Traffic deaths in the state have shot up 30% year to date over last year, according to fatal accident statistics kept by the New Jersey State Police.
More: Keansburg woman sentenced to five years in texting-and-driving death
The deaths as of March 26 stood at 140 statewide. Last year at the same time, 108 people had died on fatal vehicle accidents in New Jersey. Of the deaths this year, 47 or about a third, were pedestrians.
In Monmouth County, 14 people have died in motor vehicle collisions since Jan. 1, including four pedestrians.
More: Lawsuit: NJ trooper was texting moments before he struck and killed teen
Growing program
Menosky has branched out from the highways he patrols.
He has joined with the Holmdel Best Buy's Geek Squad to hold annual Bluetooth Pairing Initiatives, a clinic on hands-free cell phone use to show people how to abide by the law. Geek Squad hands out free dashboard cell phone holders and places test calls to the drivers that show up.
The next clinic is on April, 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the store at 2130 Route 35 in the township.
And a local student reached out to Menosky after the Feb. 21 traffic detail to collaborate with him on a program to promote Goal:Zero through social media.
He is eager to use those platforms to drive his point home.
"One point six seconds - that's the average perception-reaction time for you to perceive something that comes into your peripheral vision and for your brain to tell your body to react to it, whether it's braking or steering," Menosky said. "If you're looking at your phone, you don't know what's happening in front of you to even react."
Ken Serrano covers breaking news, crime and investigations. Reach him at 732-643-4029 or at kserrano@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: How death of a teen in 1992 spurred a Holmdel cop to make people safer
