Report: Girls in Crash Pleaded With Mom

Kayla Fernandez was critically injured after the car she was driving in flipped over at the hands of Carmen Huertas, her friend's mother, who was allegedly driving drunk.
CBS

(Courtesy) http://wcbstv.com/topstories/carmen.huertas.dwi.2.1244934.html

Newspaper Says Drunk Driving Suspect Ignored Pleas From Daughter
AOL News
posted: 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES AGO

Oct. 13) -- Authorities said a mother who was the driver in a fatal crash in New York was drunk as she sped home after a Saturday night party with her daughter and six other girls in the car.
One of the surviving girls told her mother that Carmen Huertas, 31, ignored her own daughter's pleas to slow down before the car flipped over, killing 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, reported New York Daily News.

Leandra's best friend, Kayla Fernandez, 11, survived the crash after being thrown from the car. She is still hospitalized. Huertas' daughter, Brittany, 11, and the other four girls in the car were injured but expected to recover.

Kayla's mother, Melody Sanchez, said her daughter told her that Huertas told the girls, "'You think this is fast? Just wait until we get on the highway.'"

"I'm just shocked at what she did," Sanchez told the Daily News. "This is my daughter's life!"

Huertas had a blood-alcohol level of 0.132, the paper reported. The legal limit is 0.08. She was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.

"It's not a mistake, it's not an accident; it's negligence," Lenny Rosado, Leandra's father, told the Daily News. "Are you a child or are you an adult?"

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2009-10-13 09:41:15


Source: http://news.aol.com/article/girls-reportedly-pleaded-with-carmen/715263?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fgirls-reportedly-pleaded-with-carmen%2F715263

Bronx Woman Is Charged in Crash That Killed Girl, 11

By SIMON AKAM and COLIN MOYNIHAN
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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Wrong-Way Highway Driver Who Killed 8 Had 10 Drinks, Was High

Toxicology Report in Taconic Crash Shows Marijuana, Double Legal Limit of Alcohol

By LEE FERRANAug. 4, 2009

A New York mom had at least 10 drinks and smoked a large amount of marijuana before driving five children the wrong way down a highway and crashing head on into an SUV, investigators said today.

(ABC News)Diane Schuler, 36, was killed in the July 26 accident on New York's Taconic State Parkway along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces who were riding in her van, as well as three men who were in the SUV in the July 26 wreck. Her 5-year-old son was the lone survivor of the crash.

Schuler had a blood alcohol content of .19, more than double the legal limit, and was also "impaired by marijuana," according to a statement released by state attorney Janet Difiore citing a toxicology report by the Westchester County medical examiner.

Investigators could not determine if Schuler had been drinking while she was driving, but alcohol was in her stomach at the time of the autopsy and a bottle of vodka was found at the crash scene, New York State Police Major William Carey said at a press conference.

It was not clear exactly how much or when Schuler smoked marijuana, the toxicology reported "high" levels of THC, the active ingredient in pot, Westchester director of toxicology Betsy Spratt said.

But she had drank a lot.


"There were approximately 10 drinks still in her," Spratt said that had yet to be metabolized.

The combination of alcohol and marijuana "intensified" the effects of each, Spratt said.

"With that level of alcohol we talk in ranges. She would've had difficulty with perception, judgment and memory. Around that level you get tunnel vision," Spratt said.

Carey said, "There's no indication there will be any criminal charges forthcoming."

Police initially said they had no indication Schuler was impaired while driving, Carey said.

"We did not have people that morning describe Diane Schuler as anything other than to say she was fine," Carey said.

The crash was ruled a homicide last week before the toxicology report was completed, Westchester medical examiner Dr. Millard Hyland told ABCNews.com.

"It was ruled a homicide in terms of people being killed because she was driving in the wrong direction," Hyland said, and did not take toxicology into account.

The full report was completed Monday, Hyland said.

Roseann Guzzo, daughter of Michael Bastardi and Guy Bastardi, both crash victims, told New York's The Journal News that while the report explains the once mysterious accident, it does not justify it.

"This wasn't an act of God. This was her choice. She made the wrong choice," Guzzo said. "This isn't an accident. This is murder."

The co-owner of the upstate N.Y. campground said she knew Diane Schuler well and saw her off on the day of the accident.

"If she had alcohol on her breath, I sure didn't smell it," said Scott. "The last thing I said to her was 'have a safe trip home' and she said, 'We will' and that was the end of it.


Woman Takes Deadly Turn

Schuler was driving home from a New York campground on the Taconic State Parkway, a route she knew well, when she somehow ended up driving the wrong way in the fast lane into oncoming traffic.

During the drive, Schuler called her brother to tell him she wasn't feeling well. He asked her to pull over immediately. Schuler did not pull over, but her brother was worried enough to call the police.

Two hours after the call to her brother, police believe Schuler turned onto the parkway, heading down an exit ramp with signs clearly stating that she was heading the wrong way.

She drove in the fast lane, straight into traffic. Oncoming cars swerved to miss her.


Surviving Driver: She Was 'In Control'

One of the drivers in her path, Richard Rowe, managed to avoid a crash with Schuler who he said seemed "in total control."

"I don't understand. She was in total control of the car," Rowe said. "Maybe initially she was confused, but she had lots of time to correct her mistake. If we had been 30 seconds later, we would have been hit by her."

Three men in the SUV from Yonkers, N.Y., could not avoid Schuler. All three were killed in the head-on collision.

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Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8249454&page=1

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