LONG ISLAND MOTORIST CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER IN DEATH OF PASSENGER FOLLOWING COLLISION WITH PARKED SCHOOL BUS
Defendant Allegedly Driving Sports Car While Under the Influence
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced that a 29-year-old Island Park man has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, DWI and other charges after allegedly slamming into the back of a parked yellow school bus early this morning in the East Flushing section of Queens and killing his female passenger.
District Attorney Brown said, “This was an absolutely senseless tragedy with deadly consequences for an innocent young woman. During this holiday season, motorists must be very mindful of how deadly motor vehicles can be and the consequences of climbing behind the wheel after drinking.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Kyung R. Song, 29, of Island Park, Long Island. Song is presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging him with first- and second-degree vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
If convicted, Song faces up to fifteen years in prison.
District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, Song was driving a black 2014 Porsche during the pre-dawn hours of Friday, December 18, 2015, when he crashed into the back of a parked yellow school bus.
When police arrived at the scene, they allegedly observed that the Porsche had severe front end damage, Song was unconscious in the driver’s seat, and his passenger, an unidentified Asian female, was in the front passenger seat and did not appear to be breathing or moving.
As the Porsche’s occupants were placed into an ambulance for transport to a local Queens hospital, police allegedly observed that Song had bloodshot and watery eyes and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and that the female passenger had sustained massive head injuries, from which she died shortly thereafter.
According to the criminal complaint, at the hospital, Song allegedly stated to police that he was driving 33 miles per hour when he came around a curve in the road and his tire slipped, causing him to hit the back of the school bus.
He also allegedly stated that his passenger told him to slow down, that they had been coming from a bar, and that he drank six beers and three shots of liquor. The location of the crash is a residential street in front of P.S. 22 (Thomas Jefferson Elementary School) and the unposted speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
It is alleged that a portable breath test administered to Song showed a blood alcohol content of .176, which is above the legal limit of .08 in New York City.
At the hospital, it is alleged that Song was asked if he would submit to a blood test and he refused. Thereafter, a telephonic VTL 1194 blood order was issued by Queens Supreme Court Justice Deborah Stevens Modica authorizing the taking of Song’s blood to be tested for the presence of alcohol and/or drugs. The results of that test are presently pending.
The investigation was conducted by the New York City Police Department’s 109 Precinct.
Assistant District Attorney Michelle L. Kaszuba, of the District Attorney Brown’s Homicide Investigations Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, Chief of the District Attorney’s Vehicular Homicide Unit, and Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Homicide Investigations Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders. It should be noted that a complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Boozing boyfriend claims he tried to take own life after killing girlfriend
From NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Seconds before a speeding Porsche slammed into the back of a parked school bus, a woman — likely in her last words — warned the boozed-up driver to slow down.
The passenger’s plea was met with deadly silence in Queens, as the car’s roof was sheared off and its hood peeled back like a sardine can. The front passenger side of the black Porsche Cayman was caved in after the 3:30 a.m. wreck, leaving the woman with no chance of survival.
The victim, who police say was in her 20s, died at the scene in Flushing on Friday. The wasted driver — identified as Kyung Song — emerged from the crash with minor injuries, cops said. ….MORE