From Newsday.
A Queens mother who crusaded for tougher drunken driving laws after the death of her 11-year-old son won a bittersweet victory on May 2, as she stood with the state’s top lawmakers while they announced a deal on legislation named in the boy’s honor.
With Gov. George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Monique Dixon praised lawmakers for reaching agreement on “VaSean’s Law,” named after her son VaSean Phillip Alleyne, who was killed by an alleged drunken driver in Kew Gardens Hills on Oct. 22, 2004.
“My son’s time on this Earth was short,” said Dixon, who lobbied in Albany for six weeks to close what she called “loopholes” in current anti-drunken driving laws. “The name of VaSean is going to live longer than all of us.”
The proposed law would crack down on drunken drivers who kill or seriously injure pedestrians, bicyclists or other motorists. The Assembly passed it unanimously and the Senate is also expected to approve it.
If it becomes law, killing or seriously injuring a person while driving drunk would become a felony. The legislation would remove a hurdle that requires prosecutors to prove negligence - a missed stop light, speeding, or other infraction - for a felony conviction to be reached.
Joining Dixon in support of the law was Diana Reyes and her 12-year-old boy Angel, VaSean’s best friend who suffered neurological damage in the incident and who will have to undergo treatment for years to come.
“It’s been a difficult road, but our journey is almost at an end,” said Reyes, who described a process of bonding in a common cause with Dixon, her neighbor in Kew Gardens Hills. “This man didn’t take both of them from us,” she said of the children.
Pataki said he would sign the legislation after it clears both houses. “I hope no other parent has to bring their pain to these offices,” he said.
The two boys were on their way to a sleep-over at VaSean’s house when they were hit. Under current laws, the driver charged in VaSean’s death, John Wirta, 59, faces a misdemeanor and a maximum 1-year sentence for striking the two with his van while allegedly driving with a blood-alcohol level 1 1/2 times the legal limit. Under VaSean’s Law, such a charge would carry up to 7 years in prison.
Still, Pataki said the bill in its current form is weaker than an initial version first introduced by the State Senate, because the Assembly wanted to remove provisions requiring drunken drivers to serve consecutive sentences for killing or injuring more than one person. Under VaSean’s Law, defendants can still beat a felony conviction but it will be more difficult because defense lawyers will now have to prove their clients were not negligent.
During a separate news conference with Dixon, Silver (D-Manhattan) countered Pataki’s jab with the answer: “Every piece of legislation is the result of compromise.”
Meanwhile, an expansive six-point package of tougher DWI bills supported by Pataki and proposed by various legislators is still being considered.
They would include consecutive sentences for killing or injuring more than one victim; raising vehicular manslaughter in the second degree from a Class D felony to Class C felony; enhancing charges for leaving the scene of a deadly accident; automatic revocation of a driver’s license for violating rules of the road during an incident of serious injury or death; tougher laws against repeat dangerous drivers; and the establishment of a crime called aggravated aggressive driving.
“That’s a battle for another day,” Pataki said of the other proposals.
Dixon said she supported the tougher rules but seemed to forgive Silver yesterday for Assembly opposition. She credited him with opening discussion on the issue and raising awareness of the human toll of drunken driving.
“We’ve made DWI and causing death or serious injury equal a felony,” she said at the Silver news conference. “This is one of those crimes that can totally be eliminated if people make the right choice.”