The two women have created four online petitions, which they hope help make legislative changes to prevent deaths similar to that of their sons. Watch video
LACEY -- The mothers of two people fatally struck by police vehicles in separate incidents are working for policy changes they hope will prevent similar deaths.
Standing behind a microphone Saturday on the steps of the Lacey Township Municipal Building in Forked River, Yvonne Yaar-Sharkey, whose son Neil Van De Putte was killed nearly a year ago when he was hit by a police vehicle, recalled the last time she saw her 25-year-old son.
"Around 9 p.m., I hugged Neil for the last time," she told the crowd of more than 30 people, speaking next to Michelle Harding, whose 10-year-old son Matthew McCloskey was also killed when he was struck by a cop car responding to a call. "And I said, 'I love you. Be safe.'"
The two woman want to help create new police policies and procedures by asking people to sign four petitions.
"We decided something good had to come out of something so senseless," said Donna Dolphin, whose 23-year-old son Max was with Van De Putte when he was hit by the on-duty officer's vehicle.
One of the petitions asks for the enactment of a statewide policy on "the use of emergency lights and sirens and the establishment of reasonable speed limits" when officers respond to calls.
Anthony Slota, the Lacey police officer who hit Van De Putte with his vehicle about 3:25 a.m. while responding to a call at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, did not have his emergency lights activated or sirens on, according to an investigation report by the Toms River Police Department Traffic Safety Unity.
Franklin Township Police Officer Nicholas Locilento also was driving without emergency lights or siren activated when his squad car struck and killed McCloskey. Both officers were cleared of wrongdoing in separate investigations.
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Another petition demands clarification to the state attorney general's policy for granting police officers immunity when they speed while answering emergency calls. This kind of immunity "fosters reckless behavior," the group's 10-person task force argues in the online petition.
The federal government should improve its way of tracking these types of deaths as well, the third petition says. As Chris Dolphin, a 55-year-old from Lacey Township, put it: "To address the problem, you first have to know how large the problem is."
The last petition is more personal for the Dolphins. It asks to improve timely intervention and treatment for those who witness trauma, such as their son Max, who they say suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor guilt because of this incident.
"He was treated like a criminal rather than a victim," Chris Dolphin said Saturday of how police and emergency medical responders on the scene handled his son. "We must change the status quo and demand change."
Donning an orange vest to let people know she is on the task force, Harding spoke of the irony of her 10-year-old's death.
"He wanted to be a police officer," she tearfully said of her child, who was struck Dec. 28, 2014, in Gloucester County. "The most exciting thing to him was sitting in the police car and turning on the lights and sirens. My Matthew respected the police, and without a doubt would be alive today had the officer used his warning signals while speeding in a residential neighborhood to a non-emergency call."
After the rally, mourners headed down Lacey Road near the intersection of Deerhead Lake Road to a tree by where Van De Putte died. They put out purple, red and yellow flowers after walking to the area behind a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace."
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Yaar-Sharkey said she is still coping with her son's death a year later, adding that she has "lost her identity."
"All that I know has been turned upside down," she said. "I suspect this inability to accept completely that he us gone will remain for a very long time. It's too painful to accept it completely."
Luke Nozicka may be reached at lnozicka@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @lukenozicka. Find NJ.com on Facebook.