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Update: Fatal Van Driver Was High, Says She's Sorry
By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 21, 2010
Modified Apr 21, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 21, 2010
Modified Apr 21, 2010
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Yesterday morning, a 69-year-old woman who was mowing her front yard was killed when a runaway van slammed her into her home in Hempstead, Long Island. Now Nassau County Police say the van's driver was drunk high. Newsday reports, "The driver, Kayla Gerdes, of Meister Boulevard, Freeport, was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, DWI, and driving without a license." Update: The police now say that Gerdes was speeding to make a court appearance (she stole her mother's jewelry) and that she was high on oxycodone. [More details below.]
A neighbor told the Daily News that when the van jumped the curb, hit Rebecca Twine-Wright, and barreled into Twine-Wright's home, there was a "tremendous boom." Another witness said that after the van crashed, a young woman was running down the street crying and a man was running after her, to calm her down. The van's owner, Brian Steele, was a passenger in the van but he was not charged.
Police believe that excessive speed was probably involved. And another neighbor said of Twine-Wright, a retired doctor, "I saw her all the time doing her own lawn work. She loved gardening... My thoughts are that she died doing what she loved."
Update: According to Newsday, Gerdes told reporters, "It was a mistake. The car went out of control. I was pressing the brake and it wouldn't go. I'm sorry." Apparently she was initially a passenger in the van, but felt the driver was going too slow, so they switched. Gerdes "was facing grand larceny charges for stealing jewelry from her mother to sell for drugs."
Twine-Wright's son said, "I just hope the girl who is responsible for this does the right thing and pleads guilty and asks the judge for the maximum penalty allowable if she's truly remorseful for what she did." And the chatter on Gerdes' Facebook wall (which was just taken down) suggests she had a troubled history: "i can't be having this conversation on her drama-ridden page. this girl got a chance to be rehabilitated. she's ruining my uncles life with her bullshit. i'm not TECHNICALLY related to her, but she's my uncles girlfriends daughter... She's not a wonderful person. As I buried my grandpa, all she could talk about was leaving rehab to be with some guy... stupid stupid girl. She got arrested 3 times this month already. You'd think you'd get the picture, eventually."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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