A Queens grand jury indicted a Long Island man in connection to a fatal collision in Bayside that killed a senior from Glen Oaks as he tried to cross Northern Boulevard in June.
Salvatore Sassone, 48, of Evelyn Avenue in Westbury, was arrested just before Thanksgiving and charged with driving without a license and was given a desk appearance ticket that was returnable on Dec. 11. When he appeared at Queens Criminal Court on that date, he was rearrested and booked once again at the 111th Precinct in Bayside on a slew of new charges including criminally negligent homicide, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, failure to exercise due care, and driving in excess of the maximum speed limit.
Sassone was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court later that day on the new charges for causing the death of 74-year-old Eric Wexler of 75th Avenue near the Glen Oaks Oval.
The NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined that on the night of Wednesday, June 11, Sassone was behind the wheel of a 2017 Chevy Tahoe SUV traveling eastbound on Northern Boulevard toward the Cross Island Parkway just after 10 p.m. when he struck Wexler, who was crossing north to south at 217th Street. He sustained head and body trauma and was transported by EMS to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, where he was pronounced dead.
According to the indictment, Sassone was speeding along Northern Boulevard while impaired by the consumption of alcohol when he struck and killed Wexler.
Sassone was arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Hatyofilis and released on his own recognizance and ordered to surrender his license, which was already suspended. Justice Hartofilis ordered Sassone to return to court on Jan. 29.
