Brockport, N.Y. --- Mallory Hale, 24, leaves behind a four-year-old son named Aiden. The Brockport High School alum also leaves behind a large and extended family and network of friends who are feeling the pain and absence of her loss. Hale also leaves behind a boyfriend, Taylor Carbonaro, 21, who is charged with DWI and Manslaughter.
The crash happened early Friday morning on Lake Road in the Town of Sweden. Carbonaro was taken to Strong Hospital where he remained in police custody until Tuesday morning when he posted bail. Carbonaro hasn't left the hospital and is listed in Satisfactory condition.
Meanwhile, the family of Mallory Hale gathered at Fowler Funeral Home in Brockport where they hosted calling hours and prepared for a memorial service Tuesday evening. Through the grief the family summoned the strength to speak to 13WHAM News so this comunity would hear their powerful message about drinking and driving.
"I was apprehensive for somebody so young to be raising a child," older brother Sean Hale recalled of when he first heard his sister Mallory was pregnant while he was serving in the US Army and deployed to Afghanistan. "She completely dashed every doubt in my mind the first moment I saw that child in her arms."
Little Aiden, the family says, is not yet old enough to understand what has happened to his mother. While the legal process must play out and Carbonaro is presumed innocent, the Hale family has concluded that drinking did play a role in the crash that killed Aiden's mother.
"The consequences of our actions are just beyond one life lost," Mallory's sister Melissa said. "It's a son without a mother and everyone involved is affected."
"It affects the whole community, it's not just a statistic it has a face," Matthew Hale, Mallory's oldest brother said. "At this age people have a sense of immortality and it can be taken away at any moment."
The Monroe County STOP-DWI annual report shows that alcohol is present in roughly 40% of all fatalities on local roads each year. (40% in 2010, 54% in 2009, 32% in 2008, 41% in 2007) The statistics hover above and below that 40% mark for the past decade. In 2010 the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office reports alcohol was "present" in 20 of that year's 48 traffic fatalities.
"If just one family takes a lesson from this than it gives a little bit more meaning," Sean Hale added. "There is no replacing Mallory but hopefully there is learning from this experience."
The Monroe County District Attorney's Office reports handling 5,457 felony cases in 2011 and of that total nearly 20% of the cases, or 987 in all, were Felony DWI Cases. A spokeswoman stated that prosecutors had a 99% conviction rate for Felony DWI cases.
Over and over the family of Mallory Hale made it clear what they want the community to know. If you're going to drink, don't drive. Have a plan, call a friend or a family member, and by all means please don't be that friend or family member who doesn't answer the call or responds with grief or anger.
"It'd be easy to be angry but there's no room for anger right now," Mike Hale said of his daughter's death. Hale said he and his family hold no "ill will" towards Carbonaro who they'd accepted as part of their family when he began dating Mallory. Carbonaro had moved into the Hale family home.
"We just got to find the...this is the opportunity to find some good in this," Hale continued while choking back some tears. "You know if just one person...if just one person can make a better decision in the future...."
The tears of a father missing his daughter have won this battle.
Mallory Hale was born in Germany and held dual citizenship for many years. Her father Mike served in the US Army. Mallory's oldest brother Matthew also served in the US Army and was deployed to Iraq.
In lieu of flowers the family is asking some to consider a donation to the Aiden Reice Michael Podgers education fund in care of Mike Hale.
