New Jersey Firefighter Killed by Suspected Drunk D

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New Jersey Firefighter Killed by Suspected Drunk Driver

Updated: 08-18-2005 10:39:22 PM

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HEATHER CASPI

Firehouse.Com News

A Keansburg, New Jersey firefighter was struck and killed Wednesday by a suspected drunk driver while directing traffic at the scene of a hazardous materials incident, officials said.

Joseph F. Walsh, age 76, served the Keansburg Fire Department for 54 years, said Capt. Albert Scott.

The department had responded to a minor hazardous materials incident at Keansburg High School, where Walsh was acting as a fire police officer.

"He was standing at the entrance to the high school and he was getting the vehicles out of the parking lot," Scott said. "While he was directing the traffic on Port Monmouth Road, a suspected drunk driver hit him and continued to flee the scene."

Walsh's fellow firefighters responded and had Walsh flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where he was treated but succumbed to his injuries at about 2:05 a.m.

"It was a first for any of us, having to take care of one of our own," Scott said. This is the first recorded line of duty death in the department's 93-year history.

Keansburg Deputy Police Chief James K. Pigott told the Asbury Park Press that the driver, Kristina Gogger, 26, of South Amboy, was charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and failure to use due caution for safety of a pedestrian in a roadway.

Walsh is survived by two daughters, a son, and nine grandchildren.

He is widely known and remembered for operating Walsh's Sweet Shop in Keansburg for more than 50 years. "Everyone in town used to go there," Scott said. "He used to have Welsh Farms ice cream, and candy, and any school supplies you needed."

Walsh closed the store after his wife Eleanor passed away in 1996, and worked for the borough water department until his retirement two years ago. He was also a World War II Army veteran.

"He always had a story to tell, and was always laughing," Scott recalled. "He was the type of guy that if you were telling a story, at the end at the punch line, he might be jumping into your lap." He said firefighters used to call him "Blue," after an old character from the movie "Old School."

"Anything anybody needed, he was right there for them," Scott said. "If anything needed to be done around the firehouse that he was able to do, he'd take care of it on his own, without telling anybody."

Funeral plans were being scheduled Thursday. A viewing is tentatively scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the John F. Pfleger Funeral Home in Middletown, NJ. A funeral mass is being planned for Monday at St. Anne's Church in Keansburg.

The Keansburg Fire Department has 75 members and operates out of two firehouses to serve a population of about 12,000 residents and a summer population of up to 20 to 30,000 people. The town has a beach front and boardwalk and is located on the Raritan Bay across from New York City

[Guest WolfEMT]

Car hits and kills 54-year fireman

Drunken driving among the charges

Published in the Asbury Park Press 08/19/05

BY JUSTIN VELLUCCI

KEYPORT BUREAU

KEANSBURG — For more than half a century, volunteer firefighter Joseph F. Walsh served his hometown.

It was in such service that he died early Thursday morning, after being struck by a drunken driver while directing traffic following a minor chemical spill at Keansburg High School the night before, authorities said. He was 76.

Kristina Gogger, the 26-year-old South Amboy resident who police say struck Walsh at 8:47 p.m. Wednesday on Port Monmouth Road, has been charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and failure to use due caution for the safety of a pedestrian in a roadway, Deputy Chief James K. Pigott said. She was released on her own recognizance.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin said Gogger also could face additional charges, possibly vehicular homicide.

Walsh died around 2 a.m. Thursday after being taken by helicopter to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, with serious injuries to his head and leg. At the time of the accident, Walsh was wearing a reflective traffic vest and had a flashlight, Pigott said.

A state workplace safety inspector investigating the accident said Walsh was in compliance with guidelines for directing traffic, according to Borough Manager Terence Wall.

"The victim was doing precisely the right job in precisely the right way,'' said Wall. "If additional charges are warranted, we support the filing of those charges.''

Walsh's friends and family remembered him warmly as a man invested in the daily workings of Keansburg. A family man, veteran and retired owner of a borough sweets shop, Walsh also had been a municipal employee and first-aider as well as a firefighter for 54 years.

Came here in 1940s

Born in Hoboken in 1929, Walsh moved to Keansburg as a teenager and shortly thereafter began working at the candy store that bore the family's name, said his daughter, Toby Walsh, 50, the eldest of his three children.

"He loved the firehouse,'' said the daughter, also of Keansburg. "And after my mom passed away (in 1996), he just went back to it. He was like a father to all of them over there.

"Everybody knew him and he knew everybody,'' she said.

That was a sentiment shared by Pigott, who knew Walsh for the better part of 30 years.

"(He was) a real nice guy … everybody liked him,'' Pigott said. "You go around Keansburg, I bet you won't find one person to say anything bad about the man.''

Wall said he never got to know Walsh as well as others did, but he was touched by the enormous outpouring of support for Walsh and his family that he saw Thursday.

"He's been an integral part of the community for many, many decades,'' Wall said. "To call him "Mr. Keansburg' would be an understatement.''

Predeceased by his wife, Eleanor, Walsh is survived by three children and nine grandchildren. Memorial donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, Eastern Division, 801 Broad St., Shrewsbury, NJ 07702.

Letters of condolence may be sent to pflegerfh@aol.com via e-mail.

[Guest WolfEMT]

Deadly drive ends in 12-year term

Woman loses license for life in DWI killing of firefighter

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/24/06

BY A. SCOTT FERGUSON

STAFF WRITER

FREEHOLD — In the portrait, Joseph F. Walsh stood smiling and wearing a brightly colored reflective vest, white shirt, blue shorts, baseball cap and sandals.

It was an image Kristina L. Gogger could not face. Crying, she covered her face with her hands and long, curly hair.

"That's the life you took," Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Marc LeMieux told the 27-year-old South Amboy woman as she sat in a courtroom jury box Thursday morning, her hands shackled in front of her.

In an emotional conclusion to a case that devastated two families, as well as an entire community, a judge on Thursday sentenced Gogger to 12 years in prison for killing Walsh, a 76-year-old volunteer firefighter, in a drunken-driving accident last year.

Gogger will have to serve at least 10 years before she becomes eligible for parole. She will also lose her driver's license for the rest of her life.

After drinking during a trip to Sandy Hook on Aug. 17, Gogger was driving her Buick through Keansburg when she struck Walsh, a 54-year volunteer with Keansburg Fire Company 1, as he directed traffic.

Gogger, who had a history of motor-vehicle violations and minor run-ins with the law, had a blood alcohol level that day of 0.229, nearly three times the state's legal limit.

As Gogger pleaded for forgiveness, Walsh's family and friends looked on and then spoke about the impact he had made on all their lives through the years as a father, grandfather, business owner and volunteer.

"My grandfather was a great man," Andrea Rodrigues, one of Walsh's nine grandchildren, said Thursday. "He enjoyed spending time with his family and spending time with his friends at the firehouse.

"We will never forget what happened," Rodrigues said.

Volunteer firefighter Al Scott, 53, remembered Walsh as "a father to some of us and a grandfather to a lot of the younger guys."

"We miss him dearly," Scott added.

Although he did not attend the hearing, Steven Catena of Keansburg's New Point Comfort Fire Company said Walsh's death can still be felt.

"It's never really over," Catena said. "No prison term or loss of license will bring Joe back. It's a little comforting to know that she will not be able to do this to anybody else's family."

With tears welling up her eyes, Gogger sat in the jury box dressed in a tan prison jumpsuit, her hands shackled in front of her. She read from a crumpled piece of white paper.

"I made a wrong choice on the night of the 17th," Gogger said as she faced Walsh's friends and family. "I pray every day for forgiveness. I'm truly sorry to the victim's family."

In December, Gogger pleaded guilty to first-degree vehicular homicide within a 1,000 feet of a school zone and driving while intoxicated. She could have faced a 30-year prison term, but an agreement with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office calls for a sentence of 12 years.

During that hearing, Gogger admitted she had downed five rum and Cokes before leaving Sandy Hook. As she tried to make her way through Keansburg, her car crashed into Walsh, who was helping direct traffic on Port Monmouth Road as the fire department responded to a call at the high school.

Mitchell J. Ansell, Gogger's attorney, asked state Superior Court Judge Francis P. DeStefano to revoke her license for the minimum of five years. The prosecutor's office, Walsh's family and the fire department asked that her license be taken away forever.

In his own plea for leniency before the judge, Ansell said Gogger had worked to overcome her addiction to alcohol and drugs, had been a productive member of society prior to the fatal accident, and had cooperated with police and the prosecutor's office following the crash.

"This is a difficult day for everybody involved in this case," Ansell told the court. "I've spent a lot of time with Kristina during the last several months and I can assure everyone that this day is difficult for her as well."

Ansell added that Gogger had accepted responsibility for the events of Aug. 17 and that she never meant to hurt anyone, although she knew driving drunk that day was reckless.

Gogger's family was also in court Thursday. Although they did not speak, Gogger waved to them as she came in and looked at them throughout the hearing. Afterward, Ansell said her family had been devastated by the ordeal.

LeMieux, however, painted a much darker portrait of Gogger.

He told the judge about Gogger's numerous motor-vehicle and speeding violations, which stretched back nearly a decade. He also told the court about her probation sentence for cocaine possession and other minor problems with the law.

As for Gogger's cooperation, LeMieux contended that she initially left the scene of the accident and downplayed how much she had to drink that day.

Just before he announced the 12-year prison sentence, DeStefano said that the case was a tragedy for everyone involved.

"This is obviously a sad day," DeStefano said during the sentencing. "A good man is dead and a young woman is going to prison for a long time. Don't ask me to make sense of this."

[Remember585 815]

Quote:"I made a wrong choice on the night of the 17th," Gogger said as she faced Walsh's friends and family. "I pray every day for forgiveness. I'm truly sorry to the victim's family."

You don't deserve forgiveness......and you don't deserve the light sentence you got. 12 years from a 27 year old's life is nothing. She should of got 49 years, so when she is 76 she could really appreciate her life like this man did - until she ended it after a night of sheer stupidity.

Edited February 27, 2006 by Remember585