FARMINGTON, N.Y. — Retired Deputy Thomas Doherty was killed in a car crash when a teen driver failed to stop at a stop sign on January 2, 2024. News10NBC’s Erin Mahon spoke with Doherty’s family to learn how they are honoring his memory.
Doherty and his partner Kari Bittner were on their way to meet her daughter and son-in-law for dinner that evening. Bittner says while driving down State Route 441, he looked left while passing the intersection at Canandaigua Road and saw a car coming straight at them.
“Tommy yelled and I had enough time to see a car flying through the stop sign,” Bittner said. “I heard it, I saw it, I felt it and it was chaos immediately.”
Bittner said the impact launched their car into the air, landing in a field across the intersection. “And then when I could finally get some air back into my lungs enough to check on Tommy…he never answered,” she said.
Doherty died on impact. After speaking with Mahon, Bittner returned to the intersection where it happened.
Erin Mahon, News10NBC: “How does it feel to be back in the intersection here?”
Kari Bittner: “Well the thing is, I’ve, I couldn’t even tell you how many times a day the whole thing plays through my mind.”
Bittner said she comes back often to check on the flowers their family planted in front of the cross marking where Doherty took his last breath.
Both Bittner and Doherty’s daughter, Bridget Turkington, say it’s been hard to fully move on since the other driver was only issued a few traffic tickets.
Erin Mahon, News10NBC: “One of the questions I had was when you found out there were not going to be criminal charges against the driver, how that news hit you?”
Bridget Turkington: “I mean interestingly enough I was prepared because I had been told that over and over again. But it didn’t really matter because I could not believe it. I still can’t believe it.”
A lack of legal closure leaves them to heal in other ways, one being the newest addition to the family, Bridget’s newborn baby Tommy.
“What are some of the things that you’re going to tell your kids about your dad?” Mahon asked.
Turkington replied, “Definitely we’ll talk a lot about his humor. And, his jokes. And he had a lot of ‘isms so we still use a lot of his ‘isms around the house.”
Bridget shared that little Tommy was born just after midnight on December 31, which was also the two-year anniversary of the last time she saw her father in person.
The teen driver was not criminally charged, according to Wayne County’s District Attorney’s office, because there was not enough evidence to show he was texting at the time of the crash or under the influence. Doherty’s family is in the middle of a civil lawsuit against the driver, which they expect to go to mediation.
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