Holtsville tree planting marks 20 years since state worker's death on highway

Two decades to the day after Patrick Mapleson was struck by a cement truck and killed while filling potholes in Eastport, his family, friends and fellow state transportation road crew remembered him Tuesday by planting a maple tree in his honor and urging drivers to pay attention in work zones.

Mapleson turned 66 on March 16, 2006, and headed out the next day, just seven months away from retirement as a highway maintenance worker for the state Department of Transportation.

The driver of a cement truck, distracted by a falling water bottle, veered into the highway in a "work zone intrusion" and struck Mapleson as he filled potholes on Sunrise Highway, according to the department and previous Newsday reporting.

People who worked with Mapleson joined his family and others Tuesday morning at a patch of dirt set aside for the planting just inside the entrance way to the transportation department's Medford Yard in Holtsville. 

"For those who knew my dad, dad would be looking at this like, ‘You’re doing all this for me? Why me?' He was such a simple man," said Karen Torres, Mapleson’s daughter, as she stood at a podium addressing about 50 people assembled in the yard's parking lot.

Torres, who started an advocacy group on roadside safety in response to her father's death, said time has yet to dull the pain of his loss.

"Even though it’s been 20 years, for our family, it feels like 20 seconds ago," she said.

Marie Therese Dominguez, the state DOT's commissioner, attended the ceremony and described Mapleson as "a friend to many, a co-worker, certainly a father, a leader, a grandfather" who was "an important member of his community."

Dominguez reminded those gathered that state highway workers face peril doing their jobs every day. Just last month, she said, Randolph Acum, a worker based at the Medford Yard, was struck by a vehicle on the Long Island Expressway in Holtsville as he assisted police closing the roadway after a crash. Acum was released from the hospital recently, Dominguez said, and continues to recover at home. 

Dominguez presented Mapleson's family with a plaque reading "Maple Tree for Mapleson." The tree will eventually be part of a memorial plaza to honor Mapleson and other fallen state highway workers, according to state DOT renderings at the ceremony.

Since 1939, 59 transportation workers have died on the job statewide, according to the department.

In 2025, there were 33 work zone intrusions on Long Island state roads that resulted in injuries to five DOT workers. The state defines a work zone intrusion as "an incident where a motor vehicle has entered a portion of the roadway closed due to construction or maintenance activity."

Eddie Smith, a DOT highway maintenance worker and friend of Mapleson, described him as a close friend of his family who loved coming over and helping out with home improvement projects.

"I have part of his ashes at my house. Pat and I spoke that he would like to be put on the mantle at Christmastime and just watch, so we honored that," Smith told those assembled, which drew smiles from Mapleson’s family and friends.

Smith said he hoped Mapleson’s story will remind people to focus only on driving when on the road, and to do it safely.

"We all just want to go home at the end of the day," Smith said.