When it comes to drivers consistently getting away with murder in NYC, much blame has been placed on the NYPD's woefully understaffed Accident Investigation Squad. But today the Times examines another reason for the frequent lack of criminal charges when it comes to crash investigations: the New York State Court of Appeals, which "recently reversed the convictions of drivers who were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of their passengers or others on the road."
Because the Court of Appeals insists that prosecutors demonstrate "serious moral blameworthiness" when bringing the charge of criminally negligent homicide, prosecutors have been reluctant to pursue the most serious charges. Maureen McCormick, a prosecutor in Nassau County, tells the Times, "Because of the way the court is deciding criminal negligence, it would be a risk to go for the higher charge of recklessness." And juries have to be convinced that a driver's behavior went beyond anything they would be comfortable with.
In the case of Julio Acevedo, who is accused of driving 60 mph in a 30 mph zone on Kent Avenue when he collided with a livery cab and killed a young family in the backseat, prosecutors may have a hard time getting a conviction on the most serious charge: criminally negligent homicide. There is no surveillance footage of the horrific crash, and no evidence that Acevedo was intoxicated. As the Times notes, "speeding alone is frequently insufficient to establish criminality."
One former Brooklyn prosecutor put it this way: "This area of the law is a very gray area. You’re talking about driving here, you’re not talking about somebody taking out a gun and shooting somebody." Meanwhile, drivers are still driving like maniacs on Kent Avenue. Transportation Alternatives officials and city councilman Steve Levin took a radar gun to a spot near the fatal crash and found 89% of the drivers were going faster than the 30 mph speed limit. And five were going as fast or even faster as Acevedo when he killed Nathan and Raizy Glauber, and their unborn child.
“Kent Avenue is like the Wild West," Levin tells the Daily News. "The conditions now invite people to speed." Today Levin joined City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other councilmembers to call on Albany to allow New York City to deploy speed cameras. According to Transportation Alternatives, speeding drivers cause a quarter of all traffic deaths.
