Published: October 11, 2009
An 11-year-old girl died after a car driven by the mother of one of her friends overturned on the Henry Hudson Parkway early Sunday, the police and the girl’s father said. The driver was later charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving.
Leandra Rosado
The 11-year-old, Leandra Rosado, was one of seven girls crammed into a Mercury Sable whose driver, Carmen Huertas, 32, lost control at West 96th Street shortly before 1 a.m., according to the police.
The girls — all between the ages of 11 and 14 and many of them friends from Public School 11 in Chelsea — were on their way to Ms. Huertas’s home in the Bronx as part of a slumber party.
The other girls and Ms. Huertas were left with injuries that were not life-threatening, but Leandra was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.
“My daughter was a bundle of joy; she wanted to be everyone’s friend,” Leandra’s father, Lenny Rosado, said Sunday morning.
He was standing on West 17th Street, as friends embraced him and offered their condolences.
“She loved attention, she loved dancing, she loved music,” added Mr. Rosado, a security manager at the Maritime Hotel in the meatpacking district. “She considered herself a diva. She was into fashion, art.”
Israel Soto’s 11-year-old daughter, Kayla Sanchez, was another of the youngsters in the car.
Mr. Soto, 40, who also lives in Chelsea, said Kayla was “pretty banged up,” suffering a broken arm and bruises. She was being treated at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital.
“I’m basically still in shock,” Mr. Soto said. “How do you get in a car drunk with kids?”
A spokesman for Harlem Hospital Center said on Sunday that two victims from the accident were in stable condition there, while a spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian said that two other passengers besides Kayla had been taken there.
The events leading to the accident, which happened as a slumber party spilled into its second night, began early in the weekend.
According to Mr. Rosado, his daughter left their apartment on Friday to visit Ms. Huertas’s daughter Brittany Gonzales, who lived nearby with her father and stepmother.
On the way, Ms. Huertas and Brittany pulled up and suggested that Leandra go with them to the Bronx.
“She wasn’t supposed to be there,” Mr. Rosado said. “She wasn’t invited, but Brittany wanted her to go.
“I spoke to the lady,” he added. “She told me she was taking the girls to a party planned weeks ago.”
On Saturday, Leandra returned to Chelsea to pick up a change of clothes. That night Mr. Rosado dropped her off at an apartment on West 20th Street about 8 p.m..
“I gave her money, and she hugged me and said, ‘I love you, Dad,’ ” he said Sunday morning, wiping away a tear.
Less than five hours after Leandra’s farewell to her father, Ms. Huertas and the girls headed back toward the Bronx.
Mr. Rosado said he had gone to work at the Maritime Hotel. About 2 a.m. he received a call that Leandra been involved in an accident.
Mr. Rosado says he wants to campaign for stricter penalties for drunken driving. “New York City, New York State, they need to get tough with this,” he said.
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/nyregion/12crash.html
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