Police set up mobile DUI checkpoints around New Jersey every weekend with the goal to pull impaired drivers off the road before they hurt themselves and others. A new program will go into place in Holmdel with a very special message to drivers. 

Jack Misdom died a month shy of his 17th birthday in February 1992 because of a drunk driver. 

“My brother was walking to a friend's house on Route 36 and struck and killed,” says Alex Misdom, Jack's brother. “He was sentenced to 10 years and unfortunately only served one."

Jack Misdom's photos now cover the signs that will be displayed at the Holmdel Township police checkpoints this weekend. Alex Misdom wanted drivers to see firsthand the pain the wrong decision can inflict on innocent victims. 

“You don't want someone to put through this, you don't want to live through this,” says Alex. “It's just very simple - just plan ahead if you're going to drink or do whatever.”

The hope is for signs like these is to become a sort of flagship program, adding other faces of those killed by drunk drivers across the state.

“I want this to be almost as a role model example for other agencies to use to pick a local victim, obviously with their permission, to remember their loved one, their family member and to get the message out there to obviously not drink and drive,” says Officer Matthew Menosky.

Menosky, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety came up with the idea. 

“That's all they really see are the headlines,” says Menosky. “They don't know the carnage that actually happens at the scene or to these families. It actually rips their lives apart."

Statistics provided by the state police show fatal crashes in New Jersey continued to rise from 2019 through the pandemic and into this year. In 2021, 699 drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians were killed due to collisions on New Jersey roads.