Seven months after Jamesport resident Jim Callaghan was tragically killed while jogging on Main Road in Laurel, his wife Jennifer is working to raise awareness and make roads safer for joggers and cyclists — just as the investigation and search for the driver who hit him has been officially closed.
Callaghan took part in taping an educational public service announcement to bring awarenes to hit-and-run accidents last week.
Callaghan said she was happy to be involved and do something to address the hit-and-run issue “this county has been plagued with. I can only hope and pray that my involvement saves one life and one family from the pain and suffering our family has endured.”
The PSA was taped Wednesday at the police academy located at the Suffolk County Community College’s Brentwood campus, Callaghan said. She was joined by cyclist Jim Nostrom, of the group Long Island Cyclists and Runners together for Safety & Solidarity and the Greater Long Island Running Club, and thanked Nostrom for his “continued efforts to make our areas safe for runners and cyclists.”
The three-person PSA will ultimately also feature a message from Callaghan, Nostrom, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, but the county executive has not yet taped his portion, staffers in his office said Monday.
The PSA, Callaghan said, was “something I need to do. If my participation can save one life and one family from these horrible events then it is all worth it.”
The PSA came as the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office closed her husband’s case, Callaghan said. “It’s now considered a ‘cold case’,” she said.
The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Callaghan picked up her husband’s personal effects on Saturday morning.
And after months of hoping for a lead in the case, Callaghan said, “There is no such thing as closure. I just wanted justice.”
In March, new evidence was uncovered in the ongoing investigation after a driver allegedly struck and killed a jogger on Main Road in Laurel and then left the scene, according to Suffolk County police.
Callaghan said at the time that paint was found on her husband’s clothing that did not match the paint on the two cars that did stop after the accident. The paint, she said, is metallic blue, and indicates that there was a third driver who struck her husband and fled the scene.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and the Southold Town Police Department said in March in a release that they were seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the drivers of the vehicles involved in the hit-and-run crash. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information that could have led to an arrest.
No driver was ever found, she said.
Callaghan, 49, of Jamesport was killed on January 16 during the pre-daylight hours while jogging in dense fog conditions along Route 25. Officials said it appeared that Callaghan was struck by two westbound vehicles and that he may have been lying in the roadway when struck.
Reflecting on her husband, Callaghan said, “We had quite the love story. We lived a lot in the short time we were together. We did everything together.”
Her husband was “a gentleman, in every sense of the word,” she said. “A comedian, with sharp wit. He was intelligent, devoted, a loving father to his four children, a great friend. He was athletic, motivated and a motivator. I could go on and on and on. He was a little bit of everything.”
The bond the couple shared is forever, Callaghan said. “He was the love of my life, and then some. I was very, very blessed, for no matter how much time I had him.”
