RAID is a group of Rochester-area families who lost someone to impaired driving, and who now speak, march and organize so no other family has to. These are our stories.
In 2026 RAID members sat down on camera to tell the stories of the people they lost. The films are hard to watch. They are meant to be. Each one ends the same way: it didn’t have to happen.
Told by Peter Navratil. A son remembers his mother, Geri Navratil, and her companion Jim Finegan, killed at a red light on East Avenue in 2002.
Told by Sue Merritt. A mother tells the story of her son Ryan, who drove drunk on a spring-break night in 2001 and never came home.
Told by Henry Sr. & Migdalia Rivera. Parents remember their son Henry Alexander Rivera and his friend Pedro Hernandez, killed by a wrong-way driver on 590 in 2007.
If I can get one person to do the right thing, it's all worth it. I will keep on moving forward each and every time they ask me, tirelessly.
RAID members speak at Monroe County STOP-DWI victim impact panels, in schools, at colleges and in the community, telling the stories behind the statistics.
Every December, RAID families drive in Monroe County STOP-DWI's Lights On For Life motorcade, which opens National Impaired Driving Prevention Month with headlights on for the people we lost.
At Lindsay's Life & Leisure Garden at SUNY Brockport, copper markers carry the names of our loved ones. Each spring the garden is replanted, and we gather to remember.
Each December, on the opening weekend of National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, Monroe County STOP-DWI leads a motorcade of families, police, fire crews and neighbors through Rochester with headlights on. RAID families drive in it every year. It is a public promise to the people we lost, and a warning to everyone on the road as the holidays begin.
This year’s date and route are posted by Monroe County STOP-DWI.
RAID grew out of the work of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Monroe County’s STOP-DWI program. Today we work alongside them, and with impaired-driving programs across the region.
Volunteer at an event, invite a RAID speaker to your school or workplace, or help us keep telling these stories. If you have lost someone to impaired driving, you are not alone here.
Rochester-area families who lost someone to impaired driving, working so no other family has to.
In honor of all those we have lost to impaired driving, and the families who carry them forward.
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