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In June, Kahn-Prager blew through a red light at the intersection of Utopia Parkway and 16th Avenue and struck Madeline Sershen.
By Forum Staff
An 88-year-old Whitestone woman has pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and was given a conditional discharge after promising to surrender her license and help the family of the victim push for mandatory retesting of seniors by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Seventeen-year-old Madeline Sershen was struck and killed when the defendant went through a red light on June 25, 2018. District Attorney Brown said, “This was an extremely sad and tragic case. The victim was a promising young lady who would be in her final year of high school, if she were alive today. Madeline Sershen was walking within the white lines of the crosswalk and with the green light when she was hit and fatally injured. The defendant at the time of her arrest said she didn’t see the steady red light nor the youngster crossing the street. The 88-year-old has pleaded guilty and today promised the court she would give up her license and help Sershen’s family require retesting of elderly drivers to prevent future deaths.” Identified as Sheila Kahn-Prager, the defendant plead guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment before Queens Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny, who granted Kahn-Prager a conditional discharge. If she is re-arrested within a year, she faces a one year incarceration. As part of Kahn-Prager’s plea agreement, she will surrender her license and pledge to sign a petition urging the DMV requiring the retesting of elderly motorists. Following the death of the teenager, an online petition has garnered more than 20,000 signatures to urge the NYS DMV to mandate all drivers 80 and over are retested every two years to ensure they are capable of driving safely on city streets.
