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DWI Suspect Drank Bottle of Vodka Before Hitting Three
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 6, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 6, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Ugh, the story about the woman who police believe hit three pedestrians in Forest Hills on Saturday afternoon gets worse. The Post reports that 54-year-old Susan Karnabe told the police she drank a bottle of vodka 45 minutes before the crash and that she had visited her police officer son, who "told her to get lost or he would call the police." (The court papers say it isn't clear if he knew she would drive, but did he know how she got there to see him?)
Karnabe was arrested and charged with DWI, vehicular assault, reckless endangerment, and leaving the scene of an accident after plowing into 3-year-old Mia Tetelman, her 57-year-old grandmother and her 85-year-old great-grandmother. Witnesses shouted to Karnabe to stop, even showing her the stroller the toddler was thrown from (and that was been dragged under the car), but she did not slow down.
Police, using license plate information from witnesses, tracked down Karnabe hours after the incident. Karnabe had a blood alcohol reading of .094, above the legal limit of 0.08; she also "admitted that as she drove home, she hit something and heard people screaming."
The Post says Mia Tetelman is breathing with a respirator and has broken ribs and bruised lungs. Her grandmother Alva Govshovitz had cuts and bruises and great-grandmother Frida Shein had a broken rib, black eye, and cuts and bruises.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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