What Happened
A Nassau County grand jury indicted Niall Duignan, 24, of Oceanside on second-degree manslaughter and a string of related charges after he allegedly struck and killed Patricia Pfaus, 78, of Island Park in a marked crosswalk at Weidner Avenue and Long Beach Road in Oceanside on June 18, 2026, according to Greater Long Island. Pfaus 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.
Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced the indictment. Duignan 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 Pfaus entered the crosswalk to walk across Weidner Avenue. Duignan then turned right on the red and struck her, prosecutors allege. Nassau County Police arrested him the same afternoon.
Blood drawn from Duignan roughly two and a half hours after the crash showed a BAC of 0.15 percent, per DA Donnelly. 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.
“With no regard for anyone else, Niall Duignan consciously got behind the wheel while allegedly impaired by alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana,” Donnelly said in her announcement. “As the defendant sat at a red light, he never once checked for pedestrians in the crosswalk before he hit the gas, slamming into 78-year-old Patricia Pfaus.” Donnelly noted that Pfaus’s family “agonized for a whole month” while she remained on a ventilator.
Pfaus 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.
Pfaus was born in New York City and raised in Woodside, Queens, before her family moved to Oceanside, where she graduated from Oceanside High School. She spent much of her career at McGraw Hill Publishing and later worked at Forman, Lowell & Shapiro Insurance. Her family remembered her as a devoted soap opera and Broadway fan who followed PBS programming and British dramas, and who tracked down the perfect greeting card for every birthday and holiday. She is survived by her sister, nephew, nieces, and extended family.
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 Pfaus was legally using when struck.
More on Nassau County accidents and conditions along Long Beach Road is tracked on this site.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Duignan was arraigned Thursday before Judge Colin O’Donnell 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. Duignan 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. Duignan’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 Duignan 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. Duignan submitted to a blood draw; no refusal is alleged in this case.
Case Status & Updates
The charges against Niall Duignan are accusations. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The case is proceeding through Nassau County Supreme Court, where Judge Colin O’Donnell presided over Thursday’s arraignment. 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. Duignan’s next scheduled appearance is October 19, 2026.