Police arrested a 26-year-old man for driving 126 mph while under the influence of alcohol on the Long Island Expressway.
Police say Joseph Melendez was speeding westbound on the LIE in his 2003 Mitsubishi Evolution between exits 46 and 44 in North Hills early Sunday morning.
Lasers clocked Melendez moving at 122 mph and then again minutes later, near Exit 41, at 126 mph.
As police pursued Melendez, they say other motorists on the road were forced to veer away from his car in order to avoid a collision.
Melendez was eventually stopped at Exit 34 and arrested for driving while intoxicated.
He has been charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, reckless driving, driving while intoxicated and 10 other violations of motor vehicle laws.
Melendez was arraigned Sunday in First District Court, Hempstead.
It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
SOURCE
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Showing posts with label Long Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Long Island. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
DWI deaths drop; impaired driving persists
Drunken-driving deaths have dropped dramatically since the early 1980s across the nation and locally - the result of tougher law enforcement, safer cars and a less-tolerant public, experts say - but the problem of impaired motorists persists on car-reliant Long Island.
The recent spate of wrong-way drivers on major highways in Nassau and Suffolk counties, most of whom face DWI charges, has spotlighted the often-lethal consequences when those who have been drinking or taking drugs get behind the wheel.
"We don't have a mass transit system, obviously, like New York City," said Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who has made fighting drunken driving a signature cause. "It puts more people in cars, which means more drunk drivers, which makes more people victims."
In the past three decades, drunken-driving deaths nationwide have been cut in half, falling from 21,113 in 1982 to 10,839 in 2009, according to figures from an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analysis.
That trend holds in New York State, which had 836 drunken-driving deaths in 1982 compared with 320 in 2009, a decline of 62 percent, according to the institute's analysis. Nassau County saw a drop from 60 to 19 such deaths during the same period, and in Suffolk the number fell from 88 to 39, the analysis found, declines of 68 and 56 percent respectively.
On Long Island, the number of drunken-driving deaths has seesawed over the past decade, so in 2009 the number of deaths was comparable to figures seen 10 years ago, the analysis revealed.
A troubling plateau
Yet, a broader look at the data reveals that while these deaths have fallen significantly, a stubborn plateau has been reached.
Statewide, drunken-driving fatalities have hovered at or near 30 percent of all motor-vehicle-related deaths annually for about the past five years - even as stronger penalties against offenders have become law.
FULL ARTICLE
The recent spate of wrong-way drivers on major highways in Nassau and Suffolk counties, most of whom face DWI charges, has spotlighted the often-lethal consequences when those who have been drinking or taking drugs get behind the wheel.
"We don't have a mass transit system, obviously, like New York City," said Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who has made fighting drunken driving a signature cause. "It puts more people in cars, which means more drunk drivers, which makes more people victims."
In the past three decades, drunken-driving deaths nationwide have been cut in half, falling from 21,113 in 1982 to 10,839 in 2009, according to figures from an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analysis.
That trend holds in New York State, which had 836 drunken-driving deaths in 1982 compared with 320 in 2009, a decline of 62 percent, according to the institute's analysis. Nassau County saw a drop from 60 to 19 such deaths during the same period, and in Suffolk the number fell from 88 to 39, the analysis found, declines of 68 and 56 percent respectively.
On Long Island, the number of drunken-driving deaths has seesawed over the past decade, so in 2009 the number of deaths was comparable to figures seen 10 years ago, the analysis revealed.
A troubling plateau
Yet, a broader look at the data reveals that while these deaths have fallen significantly, a stubborn plateau has been reached.
Statewide, drunken-driving fatalities have hovered at or near 30 percent of all motor-vehicle-related deaths annually for about the past five years - even as stronger penalties against offenders have become law.
FULL ARTICLE
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