A 42-year-old man was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, driving while under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, and other counts after a fatal collision in Queens that left a woman and her 10-year-old daughter dead.
On Saturday, around 8:45 p.m., police say officers responded to a 911 call about a crash at Rockaway Boulevard and Guy R Brewer Boulevard, where they found a 31-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl, both in a 2019 Chevy Cruze, with severe trauma and, in a 2018 Nissan Altima, a 42-year-old man, 38-year-old woman, 12-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl, all with injuries.
The driver of the Chevy Cruze, Diana Granobles, and her daughter, Isabella, were taken to Jamaica Hospital where they were pronounced dead. The Nissan driver, Tyrone Absolam, and the 38-year-old woman were taken to Jamaica in critical condition, the young passengers were taken to Long Island Jewish Cohen Children's Medical Center, in serious but stable condition.
According to law enforcement, Absolam was speeding west on Rockaway Boulevard when Granobles, who was driving east, was making a left turn onto Guy R Brewer Boulevard, when he struck the Chevy. The cars both appear mangled.
"As alleged, the defendant’s selfish, illegal choices resulted in the tragic death of a 10-year-old girl and her mother and caused injuries to himself and his passengers. The rules of the road are not suggestions," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. "They exist to keep motor vehicles from becoming deadly objects of destruction. When they are ignored, the results can be catastrophic. The defendant allegedly got behind the wheel of his vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and then proceeded to drive recklessly."
Katz said that that responding officers found Absolam with "bloodshot watery eyes" and in an "intoxicated condition." Her office also says that he failed two field sobriety tests. According to the charges, Absolam told officers that he had been drinking while at the beach. "I was driving the grey Nissan that got into the accident, I just got it. It’s new car, there are no issues with it. I was driving 50 miles per hour."
The speed limit at the scene of the collision, Katz's office points out, is 35 mph.
A relative of Granobles' husband said that Diana Granobles was on her way to pick him up at work, and he was using an app to track her progress. "It wasn't moving, and it was there for a while," relative Javier Granobles said. "He started walking, it was three blocks away, so he walked from the job to the scene. When he first called me, at the scene he was hysterically crying, I tried to calm him down and said just get to the hospital and see what the conditions is."
He added that the mother and daughter had been in South America for a few years to save money, but they had recently returned so Isabella could get ready for school in the fall.
