Nassau County police say they are increasing patrols for impaired drivers in anticipation of the New Year's Eve holiday weekend.
Friday in Long Beach, authorities announced a $5,000 grant from the district attorney's office to pay for additional DWI enforcement.
Lido Beach resident Jennifer Flynn spoke at the news conference. Her 7-year-old daughter Katie was killed in a July 2005 crash on the Meadowbrook Parkway. The family was heading home from a wedding when their limousine was struck head-on by a wrong-way drunk driver.
"I picked my daughter up, just her head, from the floor of the limousine, and I walked out and sat on the side of the road," Flynn says.
The crash also killed limousine driver Stanley Rabinowitz.
"Don't drink and drive," says Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. "Use common sense, call an Uber, call a cab. If you...decide to drink and drive, there's a vacancy for you over at the East Meadow jail, and we'll make sure that we accommodate you."
To further illustrate their point, Nassau officials showed an SUV that was involved in a drunk driving crash about a year and a half ago. The passenger, a 23-year-old woman, suffered a serious head injury.
Authorities say DWI patrols will be stepped up across the Island for the long weekend.
So far in 2018, officials say 66 people were killed on Nassau roads -- 16 of those deaths were the result of the impaired driving.