Settlement approved in speeding cop car crash that killed Franklin boy
Jim Walsh
FRANKLIN - The township will honor the memory of a 10-year-old Matthew McCloskey as part of the $1.5 million settlement of a lawsuit brought after the boy was fatally struck by a police car, a lawyer for the child's mother said Monday.
Members of the township committee voted Tuesday night to recognize Matthew at the annual Franklin Township Day, said Matthew Schiappa, the attorney for the child's mother.
The township's insurance carriers had previously approved the settlement's financial terms, he said Wednesday.
Schiappa said the town will provide a booth and a banner at next month's community festival for Matthew's Miracles, a charity started by the boy's mother, Michelle Harding. The nonprofit serves families who have lost a child.
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The Franklinville boy was heading to a sleepover with two friends on a rainy night in December 2014 when he was hit by a patrol car going more than 70 mph, according to an account from the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.
It said Matthew, a fifth-grader at Caroline L. Reutter School, was in a foot race with two friends, ages 9 and 12, when they came to Delsea Drive.
"The oldest child ran across the street safely and yelled that a car was coming," the prosecutor's account said.
Matthew, who hoped to one day become a police officer, ran into the street and turned toward the rapidly approaching patrol car, it said.
The driver, Officer Nicholas Locilento, had not activated his siren or emergency lights as he sped to a nonemergency call, the account said.
"Patrolman Locilento applied his brakes but was unable to avoid impacting the child," the account said.
But Sean Dalton, then the county's prosecutor, ordered municipal police departments to standardize their response to calls. Patrol cars now must use lights and sirens when traveling more than 20 mph above a road's posted speed limit.
The speed limit was 50 mph at the Delsea Drive accident site.
The mother's lawsuit, filed in January 2015, alleged township officials allowed a culture in which police showed "reckless, callous and/or deliberate indifference" to public safety when responding to calls.
Jim Walsh; (856) 486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com