Mordechai Berkowitz, a 23-year-old Lakewood resident, was sentenced Wednesday to six years in New Jersey State Prison – and will have to serve at least 85% of the sentence before being eligible for parole – for a 2022 drunken-driving crash that killed a 44-year-old woman.

The sentencing caps a more than two-year legal saga that began on July 22, 2022, when Mordy — returning home from a Friday afternoon toameha gathering where he’d been drinking — veered across the double-yellow line on South Lake Drive and slammed head-on into an oncoming vehicle. Forty-four-year-old Juana Lopez-Hernandez was tragically killed in the collision.

Mordy pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, acknowledging in open court that he had no business being behind the wheel.

In the aftermath of the crash, Mordy expressed serious remorse, launching a “Don’t Drink + Drive” campaign that urged his peers to never, under any circumstances, combine drinking and driving. The initiative has drawn nearly 45,000 pledges.

The campaign reflects a broader challenge: the persistent belief that “buzzed” driving is somehow safe, a mindset authorities have spent years trying to dismantle. Public safety experts note that even minimal alcohol consumption significantly impairs decision-making and reaction times.

The case offers a stark reminder: feeling “in control” behind the wheel is no substitute for sober judgment, and the cost of miscalculation can be irreversible and life-shattering, both for the driver and those they crash into.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)