December 27, 2015 at 11:01am was a bright Sunday morning. Nick had spilled coffee on his pants at work, and was on his way home to change. Nick stopped at a red light and was slammed into from behind by a man who was DUI. The impact was so violent that Nick’s car was forced into other vehicles and across lanes of traffic, until finally his car spun around and landed on the sidewalk. Nick was insid
e with a broken leg and massive Traumatic Brain Injury. He immediately underwent surgery for the TBI, and stayed with us on this earth for 25 more days. He was in a critical care unit, on a ventilator and never to respond to us ever again. Those excruciating 25 days were chronicled on a Community Page through Facebook called Nick's Click's, which was started to keep people up to date on Nick's progress while in the hospital. Nick's Click's was full of hope, faith, prayers, love and good vibes from people who were rooting for Nick. Nicholas Augustine Esposito died on January 21, 2016 still a teenager, less than two weeks shy of his 20th birthday. The unbelievable anguish and grief caused to both a family and a community due to losing Nicholas has been life altering to say the least. Because someone was Driving Under Influence. Avoidable ignorance killed our Nick. The senseless decision was made to drive a vehicle while impaired at 11:01am on a Sunday morning. We will never forget September 27, 2016. On that day the man who killed Nick was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom. Tests proved a blood alcohol level of .199, approximately 2 -1/2 times the legal limit for operating a vehicle, as well as narcotics evident in his system. Put into perspective, his blood alcohol level was equivalent to consuming 10 drinks in a single hour. After pleading guilty he received a MINIMUM 3 year sentence. For those of us close to Nick it was shocking and seemed so absurd for the loss of Nick’s life. How was it possible that his sentence was so minimal, while our loss, pain and suffering was so maximum. During the trial the judge said something that struck a chord - “DUI is too acceptable in society now.” For us it was never more apparent than at that moment.
