By Christina Santucci
A Queens Village man was arrested and charged with speeding and impaired driving following a fatal crash on the Grand Central Parkway that claimed the lives of two of his teenage friends, police and one of the victim’s family said.
Madosh Hansraj, 20, was charged with manslaughter, felony assault, criminally negligent homicide, illegal speed, speeding and driving while ability impaired, the NYPD said.
Police said Hansraj was driving with five passengers eastbound on the highway near 188th Street in Jamaica Estates at about 4 a.m. Saturday morning when he lost control of the car after switching lanes.
When he tried to slow down, the 1996 Honda hit the guardrail and three passengers were thrown from the rear window, police said.
The NYPD said 17-year-old Meera Dukharan and 18-year-old Anil Persaud, who were both ejected from the car, were killed and a 17-year-old boy, who was also thrown, was taken to New York Hospital Queens, where he was listed in serious but not critical condition. Two other passengers, who were 19 and 20 years old, were taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries, police said.
Dukharan and Persaud were married and had a 14-month-old daughter named Meya together, his grief-striken sister said on the steps of the family’s South Jamaica home.
“He was a working father,” Persaud’s older sister, Nalini Persaud, said, explaining that her brother had a job as an auto body painter in Queens. “He worked to take care of his wife.”
Persaud’s relatives said the group had grown close over time – at IS 238 Susan B. Anthony Middle School in Jamaica and Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village.
“They were all really good friends,” Nalini Persaud said.
Early this morning, they had been headed home, she said.
Persaud’s parents were devastated by the news that the youngest of their six children had been killed, his sister said.
“He was full of life. Everything about him was life,” Nalini Persaud said.
Reach managing editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com or by phone at 718-260-4589.
