Angela Donato’s world was turned upside down the second she received word that her sister had been in a fatal car accident.
“Think about the one person in your life that you love the most. The person that you talk to the most, the person that you go to for everything when you’re sad, stressed, happy, and imagine your life without them. That is what my life is like because of someone’s reckless decision,” Donato said.
Toni Bolis, nine months pregnant, was less than a mile away from her Washington Township home when she was hit head on by an SUV, killing she and her unborn son, RJ. Bolis was scheduled to deliver her son just two days after the accident. The driver, being distracted by his cell phone, missed two other cars before hitting Bolis’s car.
According to a 2012 survey of over 3,900 U.S. adults, 82.9 percent felt that texting and driving was “completely unacceptable,” yet 34.7 percent of those surveyed admitted to reading a text or email in the last 30 days.
At 8:23 p.m., Bolis’ mother, Mary, and sisters, Angela and Annette, rushed to the crash site shortly after she called her mother to tell her she had been in a crash. The family arrived before the paramedics, pulling up to the scene to see the driver’s side door completely smashed in. Bolis was unconscious. After being rushed to Kennedy Hospital, Bolis and her unborn baby did not survive. Baby RJ was 8 lbs. 2 ounces.
A few months after the crash, Donato, a Cabrini alumna, was given the opportunity to share Toni’s story when she was invited to Clearview Regional High School to speak to students. After her first speech, the year continued to unfold, and Donato had been invited to speak at over 30 schools. In total, Donato has spoken at over 50 schools, to date.
Distracted driving is seen regularly due to the fact that humans tend to think that they are invincible. Research suggests that multitasking actually reduces productivity, because the brain jumps back and forth between undertakings, rather than focusing on two things separately.
A 2014 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that “laws allowing police officers to pull over all drivers who are texting, regardless of age, resulted in a 5% reduction in fatal accidents among individuals ages 15-21.”
Daniel Pereira, 22 at the time of the accident, pleaded guilty to taking the lives of Bolis and her unborn son after driving west of Pitman-Downer Road in Washington Township when his car drifted into oncoming eastbound lanes of traffic on June 1, 2011. Pereira received a fine of $257 and lost his license for a year, which is the maximum penalty of reckless driving. In addition, he had to attend three of the anti-distracted driving lectures that Donato gave at local high schools, once a year over three years.
Donato said, “I’ve reached the point in my life where I can forgive him because of the epidemic that distracted driving in the new fad. Everyone does it; everyone thinks it’s okay. Everyone thinks that they are invincible.”
Members of the Donato-Bolis family worked together, alongside the families of two other New Jersey residents who were killed or severely injured in a crash caused by an individual that was using a handheld phone while driving, to get a law passed. The Kulesh, Kubert, Bolis’ Law allows prosecutors to “charge those driving while illegally using a cellphone with being reckless, meaning prosecutors can then file criminal charges, such as assault by auto or vehicular homicide, against them if they cause serious injury or death.”
“The law that we had passed is not enforced. The police officers in our state do a great job of pulling people over and giving tickets, but in a fatal crash and it goes to a prosecutor’s office, the prosecutor and the judges do not prosecute the driver for using their cellphone during a serious crash, whereas drinking and driving, they prosecute almost everyone,” Donato said.
The Toni Donato-Bolis and Baby RJ Foundation was created to educate drivers on the dangers of distracted driving through publicly sharing the story of Bolis and her unborn son in schools and public forums.
“I always say that nothing is worth that phone call or text message, looking down or putting on make-up,” Donato said. “Nothing is worth all that you have to lose.”
