Substance abuse counselor won award months before dying in moped crash on Bronx bridge

A local hero who spent 92 days working in Ground Zero the day after September 11 died in an accident on a bridge in the Bronx only a few months after winning a prestigious national prize for his advice on drug addiction.

Anthony Kohl, 59, army veteran and master plumber who overcome his own drug addiction problems to become a mentor for others, was killed last month on City Island Bridge when the moped he returned to his home.

“We knew he was receiving a prize, but we really knew about it,” said Kohl’s son Mark Kohl

“I could not have been more proud of him. I cannot put the words how proud we were to see this. ”

As a peer specialist, Kohl used his own story with drug addiction to help people currently deal with dependence and connect them to resources.

“Anthony was one of the most disinterested people I met,” said Debbian Fletcher-Blake, president and chief executive officer of VIP Community services, where Anthony worked. “He motivated everyone – staff, trainees, visitors, partners and customers. His presence was greater than life. “

Kohl lived on City Island to a few pâtés from Pont houses, where he crossed the median and collided with a Nissan Murano in 2025 heading towards the opposite direction around 3:35 p.m. on September 3, according to the cops.

The 38 -year -old driver remained on the scene and was not charged. He was not injured in the accident.

Doctors precipitated Kohl at the Jacobi Medical Center, where he died.

Kohl was a star football player as a defensive line player at George Washington high school in Washington Heights, where he was raised. But at home, life was a struggle.

“We all had a difficult life,” said Kohl’s sister Alyssa Kohl. “Our mother died early. Growing up at Washington Heights, a lot happened during this period. I was not well maintained at the time. And he just took him to take care of me. ”

After obtaining his graduation of secondary school, Kohl immediately enlisted in the army. When he went out at the age of 20, he obtained guardianship in Alyssa, who was 10 years old.

“He took me and he got us a better place to live, made me at school, helped me manage my diabetes,” said Alyssa, who suffers from type 1 diabetes. “He took me to the doctor’s appointments. You know, intensified as a brother, and just took care of me and was good with me. ”

To support his family, Kohl has become a master plumber. He married and had his first son, Mark, in 1991. A second son followed shortly after.

“My father was my football coach, basketball coach, baseball coach. I mean, if it was a sport I played, he trained, whether he knew sport or not,” said Mark. “He was the greatest man I have ever met.”

Alyssa lived with the family until she obtained her high school diploma and left at university.

The family has moved to Pennsylvania, but Kohl has always visited New York to work. On September 11, 2001, he was in Manhattan for plumbing work when the first plane crashed in the North Tower.

After the disaster, such as the dozens of other workers in the building trades, he volunteered, working the battery in Ground Zero for 92 days, offering his master plumber services, said his family.

In an interview with the National Council for mental well-being published in April, Kohl recalled its first brushes with drug addiction in adolescence.

“My first life was marked by drug use-crack and alcohol from an early age,” he said in the interview. “I had uncles that used heroin.”

With Alyssa and two young sons to take care of, Kohl managed to keep things in check. But when her sons age, when they got a high school and left for the university, and with Alyssa prospering by herself, Kohl started for a spiral. His grandparents, of which he had been extremely close, died in a rapid succession.

At this stage of his life, about 10 years after volunteering in Ground Zero, Anthony and his family had moved to Florida.

“Florida was bad. Florida was the worst,” said Alyssa. “He directed the streets, ended, gets drunk.”

Kohl was arrested in Florida for possession of cocaine, according to the files. Alyssa remembers calling him prison, asking him to send him money.

“I was her younger sister and I would never say no,” she said. “This time was really difficult.”

Although his life collapses, Kohl worked hard to protect his children from the worst. “There are things I will not talk about, because I want boys to know him only as the incredible father and the best guy he was,” said Alyssa.

After getting out of prison in Florida, serving less than a year, Kohl decided that he needed a change and went to stay with Alyssa in New York. He attended an ambulatory treatment program. In 2014, he launched an internship by someone peer, winning his certifications and throwing himself into his work as an advisor by peers.

“I found myself listening to the stories of people, providing advice and pointing them to resources that helped me,” Kohl said in the interview with the national council for well-being. “This kind of support came naturally, and it was good to play even a small role in the healing of someone else.”

In addition to his day use as a peer specialist at VIP Community Services, Kohl has worked nights at Bronx Hope, a program that focuses on overdose prevention and the connection of people to services after an arrest.

“The first district I was affected by was the same when I had been arrested for years before,” Kohl said in the pre-reactive interview. “I remember sitting there, in the meantime, and I just started laughing. The officer asked me if I was going well, and I said: “Yeah – I’m fine”. Because, for the first time, I left this building without handcuffs.

Originally published: October 5, 2025 at 5:04 p.m. HAE