Sober Driver Convicted of Murder for the First Time in NY State History

A Brooklyn driver was convicted of second-degree murder for ramming his car into another at 100 mph on the Belt Parkway on January 16, 2001, killing two people in a fiery collision. Jon Paul Lazartes, 21 faces up to 25 years to life in prison for "depraved indifference" to human life. The NY Daily News, quotes Assistant District Attorney Maureen McCormick as saying "Jurors said they couldn't avoid the feeling that any of them could have been on the road that night, struck by Lazartes' "4,500-pound torpedo," The case could be very important to bicyclists and pedestrians who have previously been unprotected by criminal laws.

In the last decade, more than 3,000 NYC cyclists and pedestrians have been killed by sober motorists. Not one of those motorists was convicted of a crime or served jail time. T.A. will push the district attorneys to use this case as precedent for the aggressive prosecution of motorists who kill and injure bicyclists and pedestrians.
Write to the Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and urge him to keep bringing killer drivers to justice.

Write to:
Kings County District Attorney
Charles Hynes
350 Jay St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201

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