Twenty years ago, Tori Lynn Andreozzi was hit by a drunk driver while walking home from school with her brother — an incident that caused her a traumatic brain injury at 12 years old.

Since then her mother, Cathy, has been an advocate for drunk driving prevention as the executive director of the Tori Lynn Andreozzi Foundation. She and a panel addressed an audience of about 40 adults and students Oct. 18 at Warwick Veterans Middle School.

Chelsea Simpson, Tori’s best friend since childhood, said she would never forget the feeling of seeing Tori on a hospital bed waiting for her to wake up. Simpson, currently pregnant with her first child, choked up thinking about the experiences that her friend would never have.

“I have been extremely fortunate to experience milestones like graduating from high school and college, beginning a career, getting married and soon, to be welcoming a child of my own,” Simpson said. “What a strange feeling it is to experience those things and know someone that you love so much was robbed of all of those experiences.”

As of last month, 61 traffic fatalities have occurred in Rhode Island so far in 2023- last year, there were only 39. Of the fatal crashes this year 58 percent involved an impaired driver.

“We’re trending in the wrong direction,” Steven Dambruch, chief of the criminal division of the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office, said. “What we’re doing now is somewhat effective, but not nearly enough. It’s not preventing these tragedies from occurring.”

According to Dambruch, the Attorney General’s office is aiming to increase the minimum penalties for drinking and driving, as well as vehicular homicide, through legislation in the General Assembly. Currently, the penalty for driving under the influence in an incident resulting in death is 15 years in prison and, the penalty for seriously injuring someone is 10 years, numbers Dambruch hopes to increase to 30 and 15, respectively.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Rhode Island Program Director Wesley Pennington said that he hopes the “Lookback Bill”— officially HB 5216 —will pass and make the period when one can be charged as a repeat offender 10 years, up from the current five.

Andreozzi said that driving under the influence is a preventable crime, and the aftereffects can significantly scar the loved ones of everyone involved.

“What I saw is imprinted in my mind and will be a vision that will never, ever leave,” Andreozzi said. “But to think my son saw that vision first was something that was even harder to deal with.”

The mental toll of drunk driving incidents was a major focus of many panelists. East Providence Fire Department EMS Director John Potvin, whose daughter was killed in a car accident, said that he has seen so many fatal crashes that he tries to keep the incidents out of his mind.

“I can’t remember his name, but I can remember his face,” Potvin said, recounting an incident he was a first responder to. “I can remember what he looked like. I can remember the screams of his girlfriend.”

That sentiment was echoed by Warwick Chief of Police Bradford Connor, who said that he was “sick of” the amount of drunk driving crashes and warnings against driving under the influence “falling on deaf ears.”

Attendee Michael Fratus also recounted his experience as a drunk driver who crashed into a tree in 2005, severely injuring himself.

“I don’t remember any of it,” Fratus said. “I was in my own little hell room of conscious nightmares because I didn’t know what happened. I thank God that none of my friends that had tried to convince me not to drive were in that car.”

Fratus has since gone to rehab - saying that he has “never had a legal drink”- and is now working with the Kent County Prevention Coalition.

Tori died on Nov. 1 last year- nineteen years after the crash that almost claimed her life. For Cathy, Simpson and everyone else who knew her, her fighting spirit stood out through all 19 of those years.

“Tori lived. Not the life that she should have, would have or could have, but Tori was able to,” Andreozzi said. “And with the limitations that were imposed on Tori because of the poor choice that someone made, she was able to live a life as full as her injuries allowed.”