Two Mothers Mourning Their Sons Lobby For Stronger State Laws For Police Vehicles

Yvonne Yaar-Sharkey had urged her son Neil Van De Putte to stay later at a family party a year ago.

But Neil wanted to see his Lacey Township friends, so he headed back to Lacey.

"And I said, 'I love you, be safe, " she said, according to app.com.

That was the last time she saw her 25-year-old son. Just hours later, Neil was dead.

He was struck by a police cruiser driven by Lacey Patrolman Andrew Slota. Slota was traveling a high rate of speed without his emergency siren and emergency lights, responding to a call at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant. Van De Putte was intoxicated and was trying to cross the roadway when he was hit.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Yaar-Sharkey, family and friends and the mother 10-year-old Matthew McCloskey, who was struck and killed by a police car in his Franklin Township neighborhood in Gloucester County on Dec. 28, 2014, held a rally on the steps of the Lacey Township Municipal over the weekend.

They are lobbying for state legislation that would mandate police officers use emergency lights and sirens on their cruisers when responding to emergencies.

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