A New York man has been taken into custody and charged with a wide variety of criminal offenses after an early morning accident that left a taxi driver dead. The incident occurred in Nassau County on April 23 at 4:16 a.m.
The police alleged that the 23-year-old man was speeding in a BMW at an unsafe velocity when he collided with a taxi on Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square. The force of the impact propelled the taxi across two lanes of traffic and into a pole, causing fatal injuries to its driver.
The passenger in the BMW, a 20-year-old woman, suffered an injury to her ankle and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The driver of the vehicle that apparently caused the accident was alleged to have fled the scene, but the police found him in approximately an hour at another location on Hempstead Turnpike. The authorities have stated their belief that the man was intoxicated at the time of the wreck. He now faces a number of criminal charges including DWI, manslaughter in the second degree, assault in the second degree, aggravated unlicensed operator and leaving the scene of an accident.
Being arrested for drunk driving is often humbling, but when the charges are expanded to include such crimes as vehicular manslaughter, the case takes on extra significance as well as difficulty. A criminal defense attorney can attempt to have some of the charges lowered and the resulting penalties reduced through negotiating a plea agreement with the prosecutor who has been assigned to the case.
Source: Malverne-West Hempstead-Lynbrook Patch, “Drunk Driver Flees Scene of High Speed Nassau Crash That Kills Cab Driver: Police”, Ryan Bonner, April 23, 2016
