File Photo
Ramirez initially was observed speeding on the Nassau Expressway.
By Forum Staff
After pleading guilty to reckless endangerment and other charges for drag racing on the Nassau Expressway in Queen, a 26-year-old Bronx man will serve six months jail, followed by five years’ probation.
Juan Ramirez led police on a high speed chase through the Springfield Gardens neighborhood hitting 115 mph and faster in August of 2016.
District Attorney Brown said, “This defendant endangered the lives of many people not to mention himself when he decided to race on our streets. Drag racing on city streets and expressways is a disaster waiting to happen. A vehicle weighing in excess of twenty-five hundred pounds and traveling at a high rate of speed is transformed into a potentially deadlymissile. A bump in the road, the twitch of a hand or even a sneeze could have resulted in death and destruction. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated in Queens County. The sentence meted out today by the Court is warranted.”
The defendant plead guilty in April to first-degree reckless endangerment and participating in an unregulated speed contest or race before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice BarryKron.
Ramirez was behind the wheel of an enhanced-1992 red Honda Civic on August 23, 2016, at approximately 2 a.m. He was observed racing with another individual, as of yet unapprehended, along the Nassau Expresswayin Queens County.
A police officer initiated a car stop by engaging the police vehicle’s sirens and lights and angling the auto in a way to cut off Ramirez’s path. The defendant slowed down, pulled the Honda toward the side of the expressway, but then hit the accelerator and took off. Continuing, the District Attorney said, the defendant led police on a high-speed chase through the Springfield Gardens neighborhood – at times exceeding 115 mph.
Ramirez drove into a cul-de-sac and crashed into a fence but still attempted to flee by accelerating in reverse and nearly striking a police officer. The car’s bumper, though, was caught in the fencing. The defendant then jumped from the vehicle and was apprehended following a short foot chase.
