Long Island Expressway bridge renamed for Officer Daniel Greer, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 1979
PLAINVIEW, N.Y. -- A fallen hero received a long overdue honor Friday, more than four decades after he was killed in the line of duty on the Long Island Expressway in Plainview.
Steven Greer was just 14 when his police officer father was killed by a drunk driver.
"He was a good man. He was a father. He loved his family, loved his job," Greer said.
Greer was left behind, along with his mother and three young siblings.
"It never goes away. The impact lasts a lifetime," he said.
More than 43 years later, a bittersweet honor was unveiled.
Nassau Police Highway Patrol Officer Daniel Greer's name will now remind those on the LIE that in 1979, the 44-year-old cop was writing a traffic summons when he was struck and killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver.
"He said to the lady, you have to move the car because, simply enough, this is dangerous, and less than a few seconds, he was gone," said Gary Ferrucci, Daniel Greer's former police partner and a retired NCPD first-grade detective.
Decades later, Greer's granddaughter noticed honors for more recently fallen law enforcement heroes.
"It's been so long, and I see other bridges and I see other things, and there's never anything done for him," said Colleen Greer Zioba.
It took an act of the New York Legislature, but it finally came to be.
"We're just so thankful as a family that this is finally happening, so grandpa, finally," Greer Zioba said.
Proving it's never too late to honor heroic sacrifice.
"People see these signs, and they will recognize the heroes that serve Nassau County," said Kevin Mullick, with the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association.
"Everybody will pass it and say, hey, who was Officer Greer? What was that about? A drunk driver took his life," Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.
"I hope when people drive by it, they remember not to drink and drive ... For generations to come, it will be a good thing that came out of something so bad," Greer Zioba said.
Much has changed since Greer was killed -- drunk driving laws are tougher, move over laws and pullover areas have been created, and LIE bridges now bear the names of police heroes.
The hit-and-run drunk driver, who was on a newspaper delivery route, was arrested. CB radios, the only way drivers could communicate with one another at the time, helped tracked him down.