Bench Dedication
Bench at Colt State Park honors crash victim
Justin Nunes was one of two Bristol teens killed in a crash on Metacom Avenue more than two years ago.
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 12, 2005
By GINA MACRISJournal Staff Writer
BRISTOL -- A new waterside bench in Colt State Park, its thick iron ribs bent into graceful curves, invites visitors to rest and take in a westward view of Narragansett Bay, one Justin Nunes knew well as a child.
Nunes lived to be 17.
On April 19, 2003, he was one of two passengers in a car involved in a high-speed chase who were killed when it slammed into a tree on Metacom Avenue at Michael Drive.
A roadside memorial still marks the spot.
But Lori Nunes, his mother, says, "We needed another place, other than the tree, other than the cemetery."
"Look at this spot," she said as she stood in a large picnic grove, watching people approach the bench at the water's edge, sit down, and gaze at the sailboats bobbing along in the distance. "It's full of life."
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a fan of Nunes', will preside at a dedication of the bench next Friday at 5 p.m.
After the ceremony, a dinner will be held under a gazebo at the edge of the picnic grove to benefit the Justin M. Nunes Memorial Fund, which awards scholarships and donates food to soup kitchens.
Justin spent many happy hours in the picnic grove where the benefit dinner will be held and often went boating with his family in the waters off the shore where his bench now stands, his mother said.
Since her son's death, Nunes has kept his spirit alive through countless speaking engagements urging teenagers not to mix drugs, drink, and driving -- the combination that resulted in the fatal crash that night.
She appears with Lynch, the attorney general, in a new public service announcement for television that calls for a stop to the youthful excess that has led to too many highway deaths.
For the July 4 holiday last month, Nunes appeared with a state trooper on a radio talk show, plying on-air personalities with alcohol and then testing their blood-alcohol level to show that even one beer can make a driver legally intoxicated.
And she spent a recent weekend on a retreat sponsored by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), brainstorming with teenagers her son's age about ways to get the safe driving message across to other young people.
SADD chapters at Cumberland and Middletown high schools have "adopted" Justin Nunes for the coming school year as a means of personifying their campaign.
Nunes says she will work with legislators to enact stricter laws against speeding and drunken driving, particularly when a vehicular homicide is involved.
Justin Nunes was one of two Bristol teens killed in a crash on Metacom Avenue more than two years ago.
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 12, 2005
By GINA MACRISJournal Staff Writer
BRISTOL -- A new waterside bench in Colt State Park, its thick iron ribs bent into graceful curves, invites visitors to rest and take in a westward view of Narragansett Bay, one Justin Nunes knew well as a child.
Nunes lived to be 17.
On April 19, 2003, he was one of two passengers in a car involved in a high-speed chase who were killed when it slammed into a tree on Metacom Avenue at Michael Drive.
A roadside memorial still marks the spot.
But Lori Nunes, his mother, says, "We needed another place, other than the tree, other than the cemetery."
"Look at this spot," she said as she stood in a large picnic grove, watching people approach the bench at the water's edge, sit down, and gaze at the sailboats bobbing along in the distance. "It's full of life."
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a fan of Nunes', will preside at a dedication of the bench next Friday at 5 p.m.
After the ceremony, a dinner will be held under a gazebo at the edge of the picnic grove to benefit the Justin M. Nunes Memorial Fund, which awards scholarships and donates food to soup kitchens.
Justin spent many happy hours in the picnic grove where the benefit dinner will be held and often went boating with his family in the waters off the shore where his bench now stands, his mother said.
Since her son's death, Nunes has kept his spirit alive through countless speaking engagements urging teenagers not to mix drugs, drink, and driving -- the combination that resulted in the fatal crash that night.
She appears with Lynch, the attorney general, in a new public service announcement for television that calls for a stop to the youthful excess that has led to too many highway deaths.
For the July 4 holiday last month, Nunes appeared with a state trooper on a radio talk show, plying on-air personalities with alcohol and then testing their blood-alcohol level to show that even one beer can make a driver legally intoxicated.
And she spent a recent weekend on a retreat sponsored by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), brainstorming with teenagers her son's age about ways to get the safe driving message across to other young people.
SADD chapters at Cumberland and Middletown high schools have "adopted" Justin Nunes for the coming school year as a means of personifying their campaign.
Nunes says she will work with legislators to enact stricter laws against speeding and drunken driving, particularly when a vehicular homicide is involved.
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