Driver arrested 10 months after Flatlands crash
BY BEN VERDE
Cops cuffed a 20-year-old
man on Jan. 17, 10 months
after he struck and killed a
63-year-old woman in Flatlands
in March last year.
Patricia Lancaster was
driving on E. 56th Street at
4:40 pm on March 3, 2019, when
the suspect smashed his 2007
Nissan Maxima into her grey
Chevy as she crossed Avenue
J. Investigators now believe
that the driver blew a red light
and was speeding at the time
of the collision, cops said.
Paramedics found Lancaster
with severe trauma to
her torso after cutting her out
of her vehicle and performing
CPR on her at the scene, before
transferring her to Mount Sinai
Brooklyn Hospital, where
she was pronounced dead, according
to police.
The driver, who was 19 at
the time of the crash, stayed
at the scene and was not initially
charged. He now faces
charges of manslaughter,
criminally negligent homicide,
reckless endangerment,
reckless driving, three counts
of speeding and two traffi c
violations for blowing a red
light and a stop sign.
Lengthy investigations
and long waits for indictments
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COURIER L 20 IFE, JANUARY 24-30, 2020
are not uncommon in
the wake traffi c fatalities.
Police waited two months
before charging Dorothy
Bruns — the Staten Island motorist
who struck and killed
two children and caused a
pregnant woman to miscarriage
after suffering a seizure
behind the wheel and running
a red light in 2018 — cuffi ng
her in May 2018 following the
deadly crash in March that
year. Prosecutors eventually
found that she had been driving
against the advice of her
doctor, which lead to her being
charged with criminally
negligent homicide, reckless
endangerment, assault, and
reckless driving.
Bruns had a sketchy driving
history leading up to
the crash, including a dozen
speeding tickets over two
years and a hit-and-run fender
bender mere weeks before the
Park Slope tragedy.
And a recent similar crash
— in which a teenage driver
barrelled his Dodge Charger
through a red light on Coney
Island Avenue in Midwood,
striking another car which
killed cyclist Jose Alzorriz —
has still not resulted in any
arrests, as police claim the investigation
remains ongoing
The Daily News reported
that cops are seeking to throw
the book at that teenage driver,
but state law is complicating
the case, and the charges may
not amount to more than a few
traffi c violations unless Brooklyn
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez
is willing to pursue an
uphill battle, since the driver
was not intoxicated at the time
of the crash and stayed at the
scene. Cops are seeking to determine
just how fast that
driver was going behind the
wheel of his sports car when he
blew the red light at Avenue L,
as prosecutors look to slap him
with as many charges as possible,
according to the Daily
News.
The intersection where
Lancaster was killed has seen
four crashes over the past fi ve
years, resulting in four injuries
and one death.
Police cuffed a 20-year-old man on Jan. 17, claiming he was speeding and ran a red light before smashing into
Patricia Lancaster’s sedan, killing her. Photo by Steve Solomonson
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