The father of a Long Island medical-school student who was killed in a 2011 car accident handed out the first scholarship named for his son at a graduation ceremony on Monday.
“I carry a memory bag with me now, wherever I go,” said Phil Walker, who is fighting for a state law that requires blood and alcohol tests at the scenes of deadly accidents.
“It’s full of pictures of him since birth. I always have it close so I never forget,” Walker said while honoring his son at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine.
James Walker was 26-years-old and just seven months from graduating the school when he was struck in a crosswalk by Danielle Sireci, 22, on Oct. 16, 2011. He died five days later, while Sireci walked away from the scene with no injuries or even a slap on the wrist from authorities.
On Monday, the retired corrections officer watched 276 graduates take the stage at the ceremony his son never had the chance to experience.
The school gave out its first James Walker Memorial Fund scholarship.
Phil Walker is furious with how his son’s case was handled. Sireci wasn’t drug-tested at the scene, despite cops finding a plastic bag of Adderall pills in her car.
“How can you kill someone, even if it is an accident, and not be held accountable at all?” Walker said.