He Pays For Driving Drunk In F.H.
Seven years in a state prison is the maximum a Hillcrest man will serve for running down and killing a construction worker on the Grand Central Parkway in Forest Hills while driving drunk last July, law enforcement sources announced.
Munshi Abdullah, 26, of 86th Road was sentenced by Acting Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt last Tuesday, Mar. 12, after pleading guilty on Jan. 24 to a charge of second-degree vehicular manslaughter for causing the accident which claimed the life of Frank Avino, 63, of Ronkonkoma, L.I.
Avino was fatally struck on July 11, 2012 by a car operated by Abdullah on the parkway as he attempted to set up a work zone to repair a broken light, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
“[Abdullah’s] decision to drive while under the influence of alcohol and to speed through a construction site tragically caused the death of an innocent man who was simply doing his job,” Brown said in a statement last Tuesday.
Law enforcement sources said the deadly incident took place at around 11 a.m. on July 11, 2012 along the westbound lanes of the Grand Central Parkway near the Jewel Avenue exit.
As previously reported, Avino- an employee of Welsbach Electric Corporation in College Point-was setting up cones along the closed left lane of the parkway in preparing for electrical work. Prosecutors said the lane was blocked off with a flashing arrow light and a construction vehicle.
Moments later, authorities stated, Avino was struck by Abdullah, who was traveling in a 2002 Audi A6 at a high rate of speed in the left lane. Based on the skidmarks left by the vehicle on the pavement, the investigation concluded that the car was going at about 58 mph when it hit the victim, well above the 50 mph speed limit.
The impact reportedly caused Avino to hit the windshield of the Audi, then thrown several feet into the air before landing on top of the parked construction vehicle.
Members of the 112th Precinct, the NYPD Highway Patrol Unit 3 and EMS units rushed to the location. Paramedics pronounced Avino dead at the scene.
Abdullah was at the scene when police arrived, and the officers who questioned him reportedly noticed that he exhibited signs of intoxication, including bloodshot, watery eyes and an odor of alcohol on his breath.
When asked for a valid driver’s license, prosecutors noted, Abdullah failed to produce one at the scene. He was later taken by police to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center for a blood test which determined that he had a blood alcohol level of .18, one-tenth of a percent above the legal limit.
In statements made to police, Abdullah admitted to drinking between midnight and 3 a.m. the morning of the accident. He reportedly stated that he got behind the wheel because his friends were too intoxicated to drive.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, chief of the D.A.’s Vehicular Homicide Unit, and Kerona K. Samuels of the D.A.’s Homicide Investigations Bureau. They were supervised by Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Homicide Investigations Bureau chief, and Peter J. McCormack III, deputy bureau chief.
