A teenage driver was arrested for a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) on Thursday night after a high-speed collision resulted in five injuries, one of them life threatening. Police report that Avinash Rupert, 19, of 90th Avenue in Jamaica, was driving on the south on Crossbay Boulevard in Howard Beach when he lost control of his vehicle.
Rupert was reportedly in the center lane in between 162nd and 163rd avenues and as he moved into the right lane struck two parked cars.
Upon impact, one of the car’s passengers was ejected about 40 feet into the air through the back windshield. Witnesses at the scene told police the car was moving at a high rate of speed immediately before the crash occurred.
The vehicle, a 1993 two door Honda Civic is owned by a man identified as Hector Mata also of Jamaica.
Five of the six occupants in the vehicle were taken to area hospitals the most seriously injured was a 17-year-old female sustained a ruptured bladder and multiple broken bones. The four females and two males in the car were all between 17-20 years of age.
Initially, officers and emergency personnel at the scene observed a strong smell of alcohol on the driver’s breath. After testing, it was confirmed at Jamaica Hospital that the driver had a blood-alcohol level classifying him as legally intoxicated. He also allegedly made statements at the scene to emergency services workers, indicating that he was intoxicated.
In a separate incident, on Sunday morning, a 16-year-old Indo-Carribean female was arrested for drunk driving after plowing head on into a vehicle at a stop light. The Bellrose resident was driving northbound on Lefferts Boulevard around 3 a.m. when she fell asleep at the wheel of the car, after leaving a house party, according to police.
This was the second DWI arrest in the 106th Precinct involving underage drivers and the 13th DWI arrest overall in the last month.
Written by Patricia Adams
