Officials claimed that the father of a teenage girl from New York City who is suspected of causing a tragic accident by driving at 101 mph in a 30 mph zone last year received a probationary term for related offenses.
A news release from the Queens District Attorney’s Office stated that Sean Smith, forty, had been charged with aiding his son’s entry into the 2005 BMW that was involved in the May 17 collision that claimed the life of a fourteen-year-old passenger.
According to the DA’s office, the driver, who was 16 at the time, had a junior driver’s license and was not allowed to drive in New York City without a parent present.
The seventeen-year-old, whose case is still pending, was charged with several offenses, including second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment. In the event of a conviction for manslaughter, he may spend 15 years behind bars.
It was unclear right away if he had entered a plea. When asked for comment on Wednesday, his attorney didn’t get back to me right away. According to the announcement, Smith entered a guilty plea in June to endangering the welfare of a child and was given a three-year probationary term. He is also required to undergo a victim impact program and a 26-week parenting course.
In June, Deo Ramnarine, the teen’s mother, entered a guilty plea to charges of endangering the welfare of a child and disorderly behavior. She was also mandated to finish the victim impact program and the parenting class. The prosecutor’s office stated that she can revoke her guilty plea if she is successful in finishing it.
According to the press statement, Smith informed the car’s insurer that the teenager had only driven the BMW twice and that he had accompanied him both times. Following the collision, Smith told police that he had purchased the BMW for his son.
However, the release said that the teen’s school witnesses stated he drove it on a regular basis and that the school administrator had previously informed his parents that he was driving to school.
According to the DA, the adolescent received tickets in 2022 for operating a vehicle without a license and for using a mobile device while driving.
On May 17, 2023, at 6:38 p.m., a crash happened close to John F. Kennedy International Airport. According to the announcement, the teenager lost control of the BMW while attempting to change lanes. He then crashed into a parked UPS truck, spun across the road, and collided with a tractor-trailer.
Fortune Williams, 14, was catapulted from the automobile after the BMW collided with the UPS truck while he was in the passenger seat. As to the DA’s announcement, she suffered from serious head injuries and was declared dead at the spot.
According to the press statement, the driver informed the police that he had picked up Fortune at home and was transporting her to his grandmother’s residence.
According to authorities, a UPS employee who was getting into the vehicle when it was struck only suffered minor injuries. Parents of the teenager’s attorneys expressed concern that the allegations had been brought by the prosecution too far.
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“It’s stretching liability to a point where it could raise real dangers that parents could be held responsible for things that they had no idea could occur,” Randall Unger, attorney for Ramnarine stated.
When questioned about Ramnarine’s knowledge of her son operating a vehicle independently on a junior license, Unger responded, “The district attorney so alleges, and I’m not contesting.”
James Polk, Smith’s attorney, said his client had been charged with a crime he was not present for and was unaware of, but he declined to comment on specifics of the case.
“That’s far-reaching in my opinion,” he stated. “It gives prosecutors a good deal of power, and I think we should be concerned about that.”
