Nassau County community rallying around two young girls left orphaned after parents killed by alleged drunk driver
LAUREL HOLLOW, N.Y. -- Police on Tuesday released the names of the two victims of a fatal weekend car crash in Nassau County.
They were a married couple who left behind two young girls. Their community has quickly launched an educational fund to help them.
A bagel shop owner has started a fund drive to let them know their neighbors are with them during their unfathomable loss.
"That the community is there, that people are going to be there. Two lives have already been taken. You don't want to destroy two children's lives," said Vadim Nayman, owner of Bagel Master.
Just after midnight Saturday, Ismenia and Odalis Urena, both 37, were driving on Northern Boulevard, which winds through Laurel Hollow, minutes from the Muttontown home they built a year ago, when an alleged drunk driver in an SUV veered into their lane, shattering their Ferrari convertible.
Sotirios Spanos, 32, of Syosset, was allegedly driving while nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit and displaying "glossy blood shot eyes, slurred speech, unsteady on his feet," according to a police report.
"A 37-year-old couple simply driving on our local roads was attacked and the vehicle was a weapon and this person took the parents of a 12-year-old and an 8-year-old," Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan said.
It was the latest in a recent series of impaired driving tragedies -- seven fatalities in Nassau in as many days.
Lafazan calls it a national public safety emergency.
"A five-alarm emergency that we are not heeding. The statistics are extremely frightening. Every day, 28 people die in a drunk-driving accident. It's more than one per hour," Lafazan said. "When you get behind the wheel and you are two or three times over, that's no accident. That's a conscious choice to kill someone."
The crash killed an author and life coach. Ismenia Urena had just published a book. Her husband, Odalis, owned a construction company.
"Other chamber had reached out to me, and really volunteering anything they could do to help out this family," said Russell Green of the Syosset-Woodbury Chamber of Commerce.
Held without bail, Spanos will be in court Wednesday to face two counts of manslaughter, reckless and drunk driving.
Spanos entered a not guilty plea. His attorney said he is a married law firm employee and has no criminal record.
