Privacy update — September 18, 2026: Identifying details have been removed under our victim privacy policy.
What Happened
A Nassau County grand jury indicted a 24-year-old Oceanside man on second-degree manslaughter and a string of related charges after he allegedly struck and killed a 78-year-old Island Park woman in a marked crosswalk at Weidner Avenue and Long Beach Road in Oceanside on June 18, 2026, according to Greater Long Island. The victim was 11 days past her 78th birthday when she was hit. She died July 17 after 29 days on a ventilator at South Nassau Communities Hospital.
The Nassau District Attorney’s office announced the indictment. The suspect was driving a 2004 Chevrolet Express van and had stopped at the red light at Weidner Avenue and Long Beach Road at approximately 4:40 p.m. when the victim entered the crosswalk to walk across Weidner Avenue. He then turned right on the red and struck her, prosecutors allege. Nassau County Police arrested him the same afternoon.
Blood drawn from the suspect roughly two and a half hours after the crash showed a BAC of 0.15 percent. New York’s legal limit is 0.08 percent under VTL § 1192.2; 0.15 is nearly double that threshold. A toxicology report separately identified cocaine and marijuana in his system, according to Nassau Police, making the impairment allegation triple-layered: alcohol, a stimulant, and cannabis simultaneously.
The district attorney’s office stated in its announcement that the suspect “consciously got behind the wheel while allegedly impaired by alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana” and “never once checked for pedestrians in the crosswalk before he hit the gas,” striking the 78-year-old victim. The office noted that the victim’s family “agonized for a whole month” while she remained on a ventilator.
The victim was transported to South Nassau Communities Hospital with facial fractures, a lacerated liver, broken ribs, and a traumatic brain injury, Greater Long Island reported. She remained on ventilator support for nearly a month. She was pronounced dead on July 17.
Location & Road Context
The crash site is the signalized intersection of Weidner Avenue and Long Beach Road in Oceanside, a densely residential section of the Town of Hempstead. Long Beach Road is a primary north-south commercial corridor connecting several South Shore communities from Oceanside south through Island Park and into Long Beach. Weidner Avenue feeds residential blocks to the east and west of that corridor. The intersection has a marked pedestrian crosswalk, the one the victim was legally using when struck.
More on Nassau County accidents and conditions along Long Beach Road is tracked on this site.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
The defendant was arraigned Thursday in Mineola and pleaded not guilty to all counts, Greater Long Island reported. The full indictment includes second-degree manslaughter (C felony), vehicular manslaughter in the second degree (D felony), second-degree assault (D felony), DWI per se (unclassified misdemeanor under VTL § 1192.2), DWI (unclassified misdemeanor under VTL § 1192.3), DWAI by drugs (VTL § 1192.4), DWAI by combined influence of drugs or alcohol and any drug (VTL § 1192.4-a), stopping or standing a vehicle in a specified place (violation), and failure to stop at a steady red traffic light (violation). Conviction on the most serious count, second-degree manslaughter, carries a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison.
Bail was set at $50,000 cash, $100,000 bond, or $500,000 partially secured bond. The defendant is due back in court October 19, 2026.
What This DWI Charge Means
New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192 creates a tiered impairment framework. DWAI (§ 1192.1) applies when a driver’s ability is impaired by alcohol but BAC stays below 0.08. DWI per se (§ 1192.2) triggers at 0.08 BAC or higher. Aggravated DWI (§ 1192.2-a) kicks in at 0.18 BAC or higher, carrying harsher baseline penalties. The suspect’s tested BAC of 0.15, drawn two and a half hours after the crash, falls in the DWI per se range; his actual BAC at the moment of impact was likely higher. Separate subsections, §§ 1192.4 and 1192.4-a, cover drug-only and combined drug-and-alcohol impairment, both of which the indictment also charges.
A first-offense DWI in New York carries a minimum $500 fine (up to $1,000), up to one year in jail, and a minimum six-month license revocation. Mandatory installation of an ignition interlock device follows any DWI conviction. Because this case involves a fatality and proceeds under felony manslaughter statutes rather than stand-alone VTL misdemeanors, the exposure is substantially greater: the C felony manslaughter count alone exposes the defendant to 5 to 15 years in state prison if convicted.
Separately, any driver who refuses a chemical test under New York’s implied-consent law faces an automatic one-year license revocation and a $500 civil penalty for a first refusal, independent of any criminal outcome. The suspect submitted to a blood draw; no refusal is alleged in this case.
Case Status & Updates
The charges in this case are accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The case is proceeding through Nassau County Supreme Court. Long Island Traffic tracks DWI and vehicular fatality cases through the Nassau and Suffolk court systems and updates each report as arraignment outcomes, plea changes, motions, and sentencing become part of the public record. The next scheduled appearance is October 19, 2026.