Another Drunk Driving Tragedy

Why don't people Learn.




(09/25/04) WESTBURY – A birthday celebration turned into tragedy Friday night when police say a drunk driver killed four teens and hospitalized another on Old Country Road in Westbury.

According to authorities, Tiffany Hagigal and four friends were driving to a celebration for her 17th birthday. While on their way, a pickup truck driven by 32-year-old Gerrard Ganz crashed into Hagigal’s vehicle and sent the car crashing into a pole. The automobile then burst into flames.

Those who witnessed the accident’s aftermath say bystanders jumped in to try and pull the victims from the vehicle. A police officer who responded to the accident called the scene “horrific.”

Hagigal was the only on of her friends in the car to survive the accident. She is expected to be released from Nassau University Medical Center in a matter of days. Sixteen-year-old Anelie Thelemaque of Westbury, 19-year-old Guy Victor of Westbury, Shauna Mattison of the Bronx and Ana Burgess of the Bronx were all killed.

Authorities later arrested Ganz for drunk driving. They say Ganz was also speeding in an attempt to get to a restaurant before closing time.



Here is a picture of the teens car that burst into flames.

Here is newsdays article...The above one was from News 12.




4 killed, 1 survives crash



BY THERESA VARGAS, TOMOEH MURAKAMI TSE AND JENNIFER BLECHER
Staff Writers


It was supposed to be a celebration, a commemoration of a birthday passed and a driver's license earned.

But as Tiffany Hagigal of Westbury marked her 17th year by using her new license to drive around four other teenagers late Friday, the excursion ended in the early morning hours with the car ablaze and the passengers dead.

Only Hagigal survived.

Gone were her cousins Shauna Mattison, 15, and Anna Mendoza Burgess, 16, both of the Bronx, and Westbury friends Anelie Thelemaque, 16, and Guy Victor, 19, known as 'Myrakle.'

'The scene was nothing short of horrific,' Det. Sgt. Dennis Barry of the Homicide Squad said. 'This is truly every parent's worst nightmare. You send young kids out in a car and to have something like this happen, nothing could be worse.'

The teenagers were less than a mile from Hagigal's Rockland Avenue house when, police said, their car was hit by a drunken driver about 12:45 a.m.

Hagigal, whose birthday was Thursday, had been driving a 1997 Honda east on Old Country Road, past the Cemetery of the Holy Rood, and was making a left onto School Street.

At that same moment, Gerrard Ganz, 32, of 150 W. 10th St. in Manhattan, was heading west on Old Country Road in a 2005 Dodge Magnum, police said. He had just left the restaurant/bar Main Event and was trying to get to Cafe Baci on Post Avenue and Old Country Road before it closed, officials added. Neither he nor his family could be reached to comment yesterday.

Neither Ganz nor a male passenger, whom police declined to identify, were injured.

Police said the Magnum slammed head-on into the Honda's passenger side, shoving the car into a pole. Yesterday, the intersection was littered with melted fiberglass and car parts.

Rob Mackin, 24, had been locking up the Blockbuster on the corner when he heard the collision -- no tires screeching, he said, 'just a loud bang.'

Then came the screaming.

'It was like loud cries,' Mackin said. In the seconds it took him to run back inside and call 911, he said a Nassau County police officer arrived and the Honda was engulfed in flames.

Police said all but one of the girls were out of the car.

Officer Donald Coupe and a passing driver were able to pull one of the girls from the backseat, but the fire kept them from getting to another, police said.

'He pulled her out of the car. I told him he's my brother now. I owe this man a lot,' said Hagigal's 23-year-old brother, who declined to give his name.

Although she had just gotten her driver's license several days earlier, he said, 'she's been driving since she was 15, 16. I taught her how to drive. Her mother taught her how to drive. Her father's a tractor-trailer driver. She's an excellent driver.'

Ganz was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. He is expected to be arraigned today. Police were investigating whether any other charges were warranted.

'She said she had the green arrow and started to make the turn. He said he had a green light coming the other way. We're investigating that now,' Barry said, adding that preliminary findings show 'speed and alcohol contributed to this accident.'

Hagigal was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where she was in critical but stable condition yesterday. Friends said she wore a brace for broken ribs, among other injuries.

'When I went in there, she was crying. I didn't want to tell her what happened to the other people, because it wasn't the right time,' said friend Jeremy Daleus, 18, of Westbury, who visited her.

Hagigal and Thelemaque were seniors at Westbury High School, where Victor had graduated in June. On Monday, the school will have grief counselors on hand.

'This is a painful loss of young lives,' said Don Miller, a spokesman for the district. 'We share the families' grief and offer our heartfelt thoughts and prayers.'

Throughout the day, friends and family gathered outside the Bronx apartment complex where Burgess and Mattison lived, laying flowers, candles and teddy bears at the doorstep. Relatives reached by phone said they were too distraught to talk.

Family members and friends yesterday streamed into Thelemaque's home on Cambridge Avenue, where her mother, Rita Syffrard, sat dazed on the living room sofa.

She had been looking forward to celebrating her own 17th birthday on Oct. 2. Instead, she will be buried then, her family said.

Thelemaque, Syffrard said, had gone out to a buffet dinner to celebrate Hagigal's birthday, and had begged to sleep over at her best friend's house for the first time.

After some back and forth, Syffrard gave in. Authorities told her Thelemaque had broken her neck and died instantly.

'My mom is 85, my dad's 86. I was expecting to bury them -- not my child,' said a teary Syffrard.

Hagigal and Thelemaque grew up blocks from each other and shared many interests. Both were cheerleaders, honor students and movie buffs.

'They're always together,' said Margaret Obin, Thelemaque's aunt.

Nichole Williams, former chairwoman of the social studies department at Westbury High, taught both girls 10th-grade global history. 'She was extremely promising,' Williams said of Thelemaque. 'She asked the greatest questions and she made the greatest comments.'

Williams said Hagigal had just interviewed and won an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority scholarship to visit colleges next month.

Like his friends, Guy Victor -- who had enrolled at Nassau Community College two weeks ago -- was eager to live a purposeful life, although he did not yet know what he wanted to do.

'He loved computers, he wanted to do something with that,' said his fraternal twin, James, as he stood outside of the family's cream-colored duplex home on Catherine Street and recalled going to the movies and playing basketball and video games with his brother. 'Next day he said he wanted to be a cop. Next day it was FBI.'

One day when they were 15, James said, his brother looked up and declared that his nickname was to be 'Myrakle.'

'He said, 'Call me Myrakle,'' James said. 'I said, 'That's a good name for you.'' And the name stuck.

Staring down at the pavement, James, who had rushed to the hospital the night before, added quietly, 'It was awful ... it hurts.'

Lost too many people back in HS to them getting hit by drunk drivers...It never ends!!
So sad!!!!
My thoughts and prayers are with all the families!

---

Posted by lvdolphins


Lost too many people back in HS to them getting hit by drunk drivers...It never ends!!
So sad!!!!
My thoughts and prayers are with all the families!

---

Same here!!! It seems like it will never end and that this is something everyone goes through or knows someone that goes through this ine high school. It is very, very, very sad.

Very sad