By Forum Staff
A 48-year-old Queens woman, whose reckless driving claimed the lives of a mother and her two daughters, in a car crash, is headed to prison, where she will spend a long time behind bars. .
Presiding Judge Michael Aloise, sentenced Deborah Burns to an indeterminate 5 to 15 years for three counts of second-degree manslaughter and seven years for two counts of second-degree assault with three years of post release supervision, following her conviction last month. The sentences are to run consecutively.
Burns was driving her 2006 Ford Explorer northbound on 210th Street in a Bayside school zone, when she crossed a double yellow line and veered into oncoming traffic. The vehicle was traveling 45 mph in excess of the speed limit
A black box recorder revealed that the 48-year-old Jackson Heights resident was going more than 60 mph when she struck the 2005 Toyota Camry driven by 75-year-old Young Ju Ha, traveling with his family.
The Camry spun out of control and slammed into a tree. Ha’s daughter, Susanna Ha, 42, and her 10-year-old daughter Angelica Ung were in the backseat of the car and died within a few hours of the crash. Another daughter, 8-year-old Michelle Ung, died three days later. Both of Susanna’s parents, who were in the front of the car, were severely injured.
The defendant told police that she had just dropped her children at a basketball game and was circling around the school in search of a parking spot. She said she was driving only 40 mph and blamed the other driver for crossing the double yellow line. Burns said that she had gotten very nervous and because of that, she swerved into the Camry, but video surveillance clearly substantiated both the excessive speed and that it was Burns’ vehicle that crossed over into oncoming traffic.
District Attorney Richard Brown, whose office maintains a zero tolerance policy for vehicular negligence, called the case a “senseless tragedy”.
“The defendant caused a horrific crash that took the lives of a mother and her two young children. A vehicle is not a toy and should be driven with the greatest of care at all times. But this defendant barreled down a street at an excessive rate of speed, mindless of the 15 mph posted speed limit in the school zone. She drove recklessly and veered into on-coming traffic. The defendant’s actions caused immeasurable agony to the victims’ family. She has now been sentenced to a lengthy term of incarceration.”
