In Loving Memory of
Marisa & Kaitlyn
The Media Section
..... Page 2
12/31/2013- CORAL SPRINGS — This video was created by Ashley Ferrante, loving sister of Kaitlyn Ferrante.
Ashley has dedicated this to the memories of Kaitlyn Ferrante and
Marissa Catronio.
We hope everyone has a happy and safe new year.
12/12/2013 - CORAL SPRINGS — ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION! This video shows one possible solution for getting the deadly trend of wrong way crashes turned around. TAPCO's DO NOT ENTER and WRONG WAY BlinkerSign® Solar LED Signs are a high-tech, low-maintenance safety solution. Their incredibly bright flashing LEDs are highly visible, day and night, in any type of weather. They greatly increase visibility and draw more attention to the sign's message. They are ideal for new traffic conditions, as well as existing scenarios with an elevated number of incidents. TAPCO currently is providing these systems for off ramps all over the country. You will see this system being use in part of Texas were 80 signs were put in the most problematic places for a wrong way driver. In the past year wrong way driving was lowered by 30%
12/6/2013 - CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) — A Florida Highway Patrol search warrant filed late Friday reveals two new and critical pieces of information about the activity of the suspected wrong way driver who killed two Coral Springs women on the Sawgrass Expressway last month.
In the search warrant, investigators said witnesses told them 20-year-old Kaila Mendoza, who did not have a driver’s license, was drinking at the Tijuana Taxi Co. in Coral Springs prior to the crash that killed Kaitlyn Ferrante and Marisa Catronio.
Gary Catronio spoke with Bryan at Tapco and they are donating one of these signs to Marisa's Way! This is great news!!! We will be taking the system to meeting, events and group talks, showing just how it works. The visual will create greater awareness. We almost 400 lives being lost anually to wrong way driver crashes, 30% is 120 lives SAVED!
We want to say thank you to Bryan and Tapco for their generosity ........
The warrant says “This investigator has since learned from additional witnesses, who provided sworn statements to this or other investigators with the FHP, that Kayla Mendoza was drinking alcoholic beverages with co-workers earlier the night of the crash at Tijuana Taxi Co. in Coral Springs.” ............. READ FULL STORY: CLICK HERE
12/5/2013 - CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) – The families of the two women killed in a wrong way crash on the Sawgrass Expressway last month have filed lawsuits against the driver and the owner of the car she was driving. The Catronio and Ferrante families along with their attorneys announced the filings of the lawsuits against Kaila Mendoza and Federico Javier Reyes this afternoon.
Gary Catronio says every so often it hits him — his daughter Marisa will never again walk through the door of the family’s Coral Springs home and that Kaitlyn Ferrante will never again give her mom Christine a hug.
“She’s not coming home,” Catronio said. “This is real.”
READ FULL STORY: CLICK HERE
11/27/2013 - CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) – The deaths of two young women in a wrong way crash on the Sawgrass Expressway last week has galvanized the victim’s families to call for more safety measures on our roads. Gary Catronio, whose daughter Marisa was killed in the crash, showed CBS 4 News what he wants to see done.
Catronio said he believes it’s very easy for a driver who is disoriented, impaired or unfamiliar with the area to make a wrong turn and wind up heading the wrong way on the highway. Specifically he says more and bigger signs are needed.
“This is wrong,” he told CBS 4′s Carey Codd. “This is broken. This has to be fixed.”
Catronio would also like to see better lighting to make the signs stand out. At night, you can barely make out the Wrong Way signs. He’s also suggesting LED lights on the back side of the toll area to warn drivers that they’re traveling the wrong way and he’d like the arms put back on the tolls as a way slow down wrong way drivers.
Catronio admits it might be difficult to stop an impaired driver but he says it’s worth the effort.
“There’s a chance that it could,” he said. “I really believe there’s a chance that it could.” READ FULL STORY - CLICK HERE
Marisa’s father, Gary Catronio, recalled that tragic night to Gretchen Carlson on Real Story. Around 2 a.m., Catronio looked at the GPS tracker on his daughter’s phone and saw she was on the Sawgrass Expressway. He noticed the car wasn’t moving and heard about an accident. He told his wife, “It’s Marissa. We gotta go.”
At the hospital around 5 a.m., they were informed that she had been killed instantly at the scene.
11/27/2013 - CORAL SPRINGS (FoxNews Insider) Two young women were killed in Florida when their car was struck by a driver who is alleged to have tweeted, “2 drunk 2 care” hours before the accident.
Police say Kayla Mendoza, 20, was driving the wrong way on a Florida expressway when she slammed into another car.
Marisa Catronio, 21, was killed instantly and Kaitlyn Nicole Ferrante, also 21 years old, died a few days later from her injuries.
Mendoza survived and has not been arrested or charged with a crime as police await the toxicology report. Her family now claims that her Twitter account was hacked. The first name on that account is spelled, “Kaila.”
11/26/2013 - CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) – A wrong way driver who hit and killed two Coral Springs women last week was driving the wrong way for at least two miles on the Sawgrass Expressway and swerved to miss more than 20 cars and trucks before the deadly collision, an eyewitness to the crash told CBS4 News in an exclusive interview.
Frank Aceste said he tried to alert the wrong way driver prior to the crash but to no avail.
“I tried flashing my lights, beeping my horn but no response from the driver,” Aceste told CBS 4′s Carey Codd, adding that he was on the phone with a 911 operator for about 10 minutes before the crash.
Aceste said the driver, identified by the Florida Highway Patrol as Kaila Mendoza, appeared to slow down at one point, after losing her control of her car. Aceste said even though he was on the opposite side of the road, he was close enough to the driver to wave his hands and honk his horn. He says he told 911 that he believed the driver realized she was going the wrong way.But Aceste was wrong. He said the driver accelerated, continued heading the wrong way and seconds later slammed into a car driven by Kaitlyn Ferrante. READ FULL STORY - CLICK HERE