Results tagged “crash”

Bowing to pressure from families of drunk driving victims, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has thrown his support behind a bill that would make it a felony to drive with a blood alcohol content of .08 while a passenger 15 years old or under is in the car. The legislation is named for 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who recently died in a crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway while riding with her friend's allegedly drunk mother.

From the Post: "A driver distracted by her ringing cellphone smashed into a tractor-trailer in Brooklyn early yesterday -- injuring her two adult passengers but remarkably leaving her baby boy unscathed, witnesses said. 'I looked away, and the car went out of control,' said Carmen Natel, 31, who'd been driving two female co-workers home from a party at their boss' house." The incident occurred at Humboldt and Greenpoint—and a security guard "pulled 10-month-old Jaydi from the mangled wreck."

The woman who killed eight people, including herself, when she drove her minivan the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway was a heavy drinker and frequent marijuana smoker, the woman's sister-in-law told investigators. Despite her husband's repeated claims that his wife wasn't an alcoholic or regular drug user, Diane Schuler's in-law revealed to police that the 36-year-old "was a hard drinker" who "used marijuana daily because of the fact that she didn't believe in doctors," according to an attorney representing the families of two men killed in the July accident.

George Adde, 66, claims he sustained a herniated disk in his lower back when other passengers fell on him during the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash, which killed 11 people and injured many others. Taxpayers have spent $66.9 million settling 161 of the 171 cases filed in the aftermath of the accident, including a $6.5 million payout to a man who lost part of his right leg. Adde was probably counting on a million or two to help him cope with his back pain, but there was just one teensy problem with his lawsuit.

The off-duty NYPD detective who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian early Friday morning in the Bronx had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent almost six hours after the accident. Despite delaying the test for hours by refusing to cooperate without a warrant, 22-year NYPD veteran Kevin Spellman, 42, was still very intoxicated. (The legal limit is 0.08 percent.) Spellman's alcohol level was certainly much higher at the time of the crash, but because people metabolize alcohol at different rates, it's anyone's guess how wasted he was at 6:30 a.m.

Though former Fox 5 TV reporter Mike Sheehan originally said "neigh" to charges that he was drunk when he drove into a mounted police officer in March, yesterday he pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol. Sheehan drove into the horse and cop on Varick Street in Tribeca, leaving the cop with a bruised leg and the horse with cuts, bruises and scrapes; he refused to take a Breathalyzer test after the accident. In true Fox news style, Sheehan had claimed that the horse was actually to blame for colliding with him.

Two girls have died from a horrible van crash in St. Albans, Queens that occurred at 5 p.m. yesterday. Both were foster children: The first, a 15-year-old, died late Monday night, and the other, a 5-year-old died at 4:30 this morning. The Daily News reports that driver Shelia Bethea, 45, "crossed the double-yellow line on Dunkirk St. in Saint Albans while going between 60 and 70 miles an hour, slamming her minivan into another van."

An East Village resident sent us these photos of the aftermath of a horrific automobile crash that happened early this morning, at First Avenue and Fourth Street. An NYPD spokesman tells us that according to a "preliminary report," a 55-year-old black female was killed after a delivery van and minivan collided. Apparently, the minivan was so totaled that EMS had to cut the top off to get inside. The spokesman said there were no other injuries (which seems hard to believe) and no one was charged (which seems typical). Streetsblog hears an "unconfirmed" report that "this was a T-bone collision in which the minivan ran the light."

A Staten Island man died early Sunday morning while trying to back his SUV out of a tight parking space in a pub parking lot. Oleg Kantarovich had gone outside to pull the car around for his wife, who was celebrating her 30th birthday, so that she wouldn't get caught in the rain. Police say he was leaning out of the front door of his 2007 Audi SUV as he backed up because it may have been difficult to see through the tinted side window.

The woman who allegedly drove drunk and crashed a vehicle full of young girls on the West Side Highway—killing her daughter's 11-year-old friend—is reportedly so upset that she's on suicide watch. A sourced tells the Daily News, "The first thing she says to anyone who walks into her room is that she deserves to die. That she is going to kill herself. She's not doing well right now."

More upsetting details about the horrible crash on the West Side Highway that left an 11-year-old girl dead and six other girls injured, not to mention the mother who was allegedly driving drunk at the time. Melody Sanchez, whose daughter 11-year-old daughter Kayla (pictured) is in critical condition after being thrown from the overloaded Mercury Sable, said that Carmen Huertas essentially taunted the girls about her terrible driving.

Early Sunday morning, a Bronx woman driving a 1998 Mercury Sable—carrying seven children, including her daughter, ages 11 to 14—crashed and overturned her car on the West Side Highway. An 11-year-old girl was killed and the Daily News reports, "Investigators said Carmen Huertas' blood-alcohol content was more than one and a half times the legal limit." Huertas, 31, was charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving. The girl's father said, "I call this murder."

In hopes of seeing whether there's water or ice on the moon, NASA is crashing two spacecraft onto the moon's surface. The AP explains, "The crashing spaceship was launched in June along with an orbiter that's now mapping the lunar surface. LCROSS -- short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross -- is on a collision course with the moon, attached to an empty 2.2-ton rocket that helped get the probe off the ground."

Amid allegations that his fellow cops helped "cover-up" his intoxication after fatally running over Vionique Valnord Saturday night, the lawyer for officer Andrew Kelly fiercely defended his client, who scored a perfect zero on his blood alcohol test, administered eight hours after the accident. Attorney Arthur Aidala told the Daily News, "To be crystal-clear, Andrew wasn't drunk. Andrew wasn't surprised by his blood-alcohol level. He knows what he did that day. He tried to save that woman. He got her breathing, and at one point, she opened her eyes. He's just sad that she's not breathing today."

Just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, Vionique Valnord, 32, was trying to hail a cab after a wedding reception in Flatbush when she was fatally struck by a Jeep Cherokee SUV; the driver was NYPD officer Andrew Kelly, 30, a seven-year veteran of the department who worked in the 68th Precinct. Four passengers in the SUV, one an off-duty cop, immediately fled the scene, but Kelly, who was off-duty, remained. His brother-in-law tells the Times that Kelly "performed CPR on the woman," and one witness tells the Post, "[Kelly] got out of the car, and he was trying to resuscitate her. He got her breathing again by the time the ambulance got here."

Yesterday just after noon we reported that a cab had collided with a horse and buggy on the Upper East Side. While we received plenty of photos and video of the aftermath, showing the wrecked car and carriage, there was no sight of the horse.

After a record low number of fatalities from auto accidents in 2007, the number of deaths spiked last year to 292 pedestrians, drivers, passengers, bicyclists and motorcyclists—18 more people than in 2007. According to a report issued by the DOT, pedestrian fatalities last year jumped to 147, seven more than in 2007.

On Friday night, at the 7th Avenue and 51st Street intersection in Sunset Park, a Chinese restaurant deliveryman on a scooter collided head-on with an FDNY cruiser—a witness said Lin Chen, 36, was bleeding so much he looked dead (the photo is dramatic). Today, the Daily News reports that Chen remains in the ICU at Lutheran Medical Center. According to News and Post, FDNY EMS Deputy Chief Brian Milzoff will not be charged. Milzoff, whose lights and sirens were on (according to EMS sources that spoke to the News) had been responding to a call about a stabbing which later turned out to be false. The Post adds, "Witnesses wondered why Milzoff didn't get out to help the victim, but EMS sources said he was actually pinned in his car," and tests showed Milzoff was not drunk. Meanwhile, relatives are hoping the best for Lin, the married father of two young children; his nephew said, "Everyone feels bad, like sick. It's very hard."

Yesterday morning a driver for an appliance company got out of his truck on East 50th Street without locking the air brake, sending the 24-foot box truck rolling east across Lexington Avenue. Fortunately, it crossed the avenue just as the traffic light turned green, then crashed into some construction scaffolding without injuring a single soul. Kirk, the 25-year-old driver who would only give the Daily News his first name, explalins, "I thought someone stole it. I was shocked to see no one in it when I opened the door." Bystander Tony Wood says the truck narrowly missed "a lady trying to cross the street but she stepped back." And subcontractor Alan Cheung tells the News, "I'm still shocked. This is my seventh cigarette this morning. I haven't been able to get in work mode since." (We'll have to remember that excuse.) Police did not charge Kirk, who insists he put the vehicle in park before jumping out. Regardless, it's hard to read about this harrowing incident without recalling the horrible crash in Chinatown in January, when a minivan jumped a curb, killing two children and injuring 17.

Yesterday we mentioned that there was a car crash—which included an overturned taxi car—at 24th Street and 7th Avenue. Streetsblog has two photographs of the scene and it looks like the crash involved two cabs. Three people were injured, one of them critically, in the 1:45 p.m. incident, but there are no other details about what happened. Well, we can imagine.

A few more details about yesterday's fatal car crash on the Brooklyn Bridge, which closed inbound lanes for hours. The Daily News has a photograph of the crumpled car and reports, "Investigators believe Andre Donald was traveling from his home in East New York, Brooklyn, just after 4 a.m. when he lost control of his 2008 gray Honda Accord and crashed. The [stationary, yellow] DOT truck, which was unoccupied, sported a flashing electronic arrow meant to alert motorists to its presence... Investigators are not certain what caused Donald to hit the well-marked yellow truck but were checking if he had been drinking in the hours before the accident, police sources said." And WPIX's Linda Church was at the bridge during the accident and said, "This car was literally trashed, the whole first half of it. It was a horrible accident... He somehow hit the back of this big bridge truck with all the yellow arrows. Hard to say how he missed it but clearly he missed it and clearly he was going very fast."

Yesterday around 4 p.m. word came in on the newswire that there was a "motorcycle down" on, or just before, the Williamsburg Bridge—towards the Manhattan side. Shortly after an update came in saying the accident was fatal. There aren't many details beyond those available yet, but eyewitnesses say the motorcycle was actually a Vespa, and it was hit (and totaled) by a black car. The Vespa driver is the one who died, and URB Magazine reports it was deejay Josh Link (friends are confirming on Twitter). Many witnessed the scene, which has been described as bloody, and one even posted their thoughts on Craigslist, noting that late last night there were burning candles where the crash happened. UPDATE: It has been confirmed that Josh Link was the victim in this sad accident, and services will be held on Long Island tomorrow.

Reacting to the FAA's revelation that an air traffic controller at Teterboro Airport was on a personal call while also handling the flight route of the small plane that crash into a helicopter last weekend, the National Air Traffic Controllers Union's Barrett Burns said, "For the FAA to sit there and allude or make accusations that the controller had anything to do with this accident is absolutely absurd and very insulting." The FAA suspended the controller, as well as his supervisor who left the room, though the agency also said, "We have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident." And now the National Transportation Safety Board says that the controller didn't warn the plane about another small aircraft before the crash: WCBS 2 reports, "The board said radar data show that there were several blips in the plane's path, including the helicopter. The board said it wasn't until controllers at nearby Newark airport alerted the Teterboro controller to the potential collision that he tried unsuccessfully to contact the pilot." The crash killed nine people, six in the helicopter and three on the plane.

New footage from a tourist on a Circle Line cruise showing last Saturday's collision between a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter was released tonight, just as the FAA announced that the air traffic controller and his supervisor at Teterboro Airport in NJ were suspended. Apparently the air traffic controller was on the phone with his girlfriend while handling the small plane's flight and his supervisor had left the room. The FAA said, in a statement, "We learned that the controller handling the Piper flight was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident... We also learned that the supervisor was not present in the building as required."

Police believe drag racing caused a spectacular crash on Francis Lewis Boulevard that left two teens and 11-year-old boy hospitalized. Two cars, a BMW and a Lexus, were seen speeding around 11 p.m. last night when they knocked into each other, sending the BMW spinning into a parked van. Witness Peter Boudouvas tells CBS 2, "I saw one car bump the car on the left, took 2 or 3 spins, van moved 30 feet up. I jumped out, called 911 and asked nobody to move." According to ABC 7, police had to cut down a tree to get through to the wreckage. Another witness says the BMW was "doing 60 to 70 mph...Things like this happen all the time." The 18-year-old driver of the BMW and two male passengers, ages 18 and 11, were rushed to Booth Memorial Hospital in Queens. The 11-year-old is in critical condition, and the 16-year-old driver of the Lexus walked away with minor injuries. He was given a breathalyzer test (it came back negative) and is being questioned by police, but he's already in violation of the law for driving without a licensed adult in the car.

          

Update 10:30 p.m.: The National Transportation Safety Board says that a total of three bodies have been recovered from the Hudson; it is not clear whether the bodies are from the plane and/or helicopter. The diving recovery operations were called off in evening and will resume in the morning.

With news that Diane Schuler was intoxicated while driving a minivan on the wrong side of the Taconic State Parkway and crashed into an SUV, killing its three passengers, relatives of the SUV's driver and a passengers are planning to file a civil suit against Schuler's family. Attorney Irving Anolik, representing the family of Guy Bastardi and his father Michael Bastardi, said that there's a "strong fragrance of criminality" and said anyone who knew of Diane Schuler's impaired condition may "possibly be an accomplice... Any person who was aware that she was drinking is an accomplice... It's hard for me to believe that the family did not know that this woman had an alcohol problem or a drug problem."

Just before 3 a.m. this morning, a Honda Civic crashed into a tree off the Wangtagh Parkway, south of the Sunrise Highway, killing the driver and passengers, one who had been sitting in front and one who had been sitting in the back. A fourth person, a woman who had been sitting in the backseat, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. 1010 WINS reports, "Police believe that the car was speeding and lost control as it went around a curve in the road, slamming into a tree. Open and unopened beer cans were found inside the car, but it is unclear if alcohol consumption played a role in the crash, police said." The parkway may be partly closed due to the investigation.

Yesterday afternoon, a deadly crash unfolded on the Montauk Highway when a 2009 Mitsubishi crashed into a Ford Windstar minivan in Copiague. According to the Suffolk County Police, Damian Dudkiewicz, 25, lost control of the Mitsubishi while driving eastbound; he "slid into oncoming traffic at 4:28 p.m." and struck the westbound minivan driven by 50-year-old Rosanna Attaguile. Two of the passengers in Dudkiewicz's car were killed while Attaguile's mother was killed. Dudkiewicz suffered non-life threatening injuries while another passenger was badly injured; Attaguile and her father were treated for their injuries—both had broken ribs and collapsed lungs. A volunteer firefighter told Newsday that Dudkiewicz "was conscious, but at the same time, we didn't know if he had brain damage or something. He kept asking: 'Where am I? Where's my fiancee?'" (The fiancee was killed.)The Daily News suggests the crash may have been "sparked by a possible drag racing contest."

Around 1:30 a.m. this morning, a Marriott hotel shuttle bus and a FedEx truck collided on the South Service Road outside Newark Liberty International Airport. The shuttle bus driver is dead and the truck driver and a shuttle passenger are injured. According to WABC 7, "The passengers on the airport shuttle, three flight crew members, told police the Fed Ex truck was in the wrong lane when it collided head-on with their jitney. They said the shuttle driver attempted to avoid the crash, but could not swerve in time." And WCBS 2 says, "The courtesy bus seemed to have absorbed the brunt of the impact. The FedEx truck was seen parked sideways in the high grass." The Port Authority Police are investigating.