Mary J. Dalton Gets 5 Years for 2010 Deadly Hit-and-Run in Deptford

A Deptford woman will spend five years in state prison after being sentenced Thursday in the 2010 hit-and-run death of a bicyclist on Delsea Drive in Deptford.

Mary J. Dalton, 42, had pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide for plowing into 43-year-old Woodbury resident Thomas C. McCoy, who was biking down Delsea Drive on Sept. 14, 2010.

Dalton, who has been in jail since the accident, was sympathetic to McCoy's family at sentencing.

“This is a pain I have to live with every day, but it doesn’t compare to the pain I caused them,” she said.

In her plea, Dalton admitted to being drunk on the day of the crash, and police measured her blood-alcohol level at 0.235, just shy of three times the legal limit. She slammed into McCoy from behind as he was riding on the shoulder of the road, and continued on until her truck broke down. Police arrested Dalton about a mile from the crash scene.

Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. called death-by-auto cases some of the most difficult, given the accused generally don't intentionally cause the deaths.

“If they do nothing but drink to excess…the effect is still the same,” Marshall said. “It is devastating.”

Marshall ruled Dalton will be ineligible for parole for 85 percent of her sentence, will lose her driver’s license for five years and must take a 12-hour intoxicated driver resource course when released from prison.

Under state law, after resuming driving, she must install an interlock device that prevents a vehicle from starting if excessive alcohol is detected on the driver’s breath.

Dalton is not related to Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton.