Driver Charged In Fatal Staten Island Accident
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Charges were filed Thursday against a young driver accused in a high-speed crash that killed two of his friends and seriously injured two others.
Prosecutors said the grisly accident happened after a night of drinking, CBS 2's Pablo Guzman reports.
Nicholas Marchese was seen rushing out of Staten Island Supreme Court after his family posted $100,000 bail to get him out of jail.
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The Staten Island District Attorney's Office said Marchese was behind the wheel last August when his vehicle when he lost control of the car.
Two of Marchese's friends were killed in the accident. One friend remains confined to a wheelchair, while the other has steel rods in his leg. One other man was injured in the crash as well.
"We have five witnesses that say the car was going upwards of 90 miles per hour," Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said. "There's no road in the United States that anyone should legally be driving 90 miles per hour."
"It's the call that you would never want to get as a parent – that your kid was in a bad car accident," Thomas Sjeme Sr., father of one of the injured victims, said.
All of the young men in the car were, and are, friends. The district attorney said there was a lack of cooperation, but family said there is pain that cannot stay inside.
"He doesn't even talk about the accident that much," Sjeme said. "It's something that he's going to counseling for and so forth, because he gets nightmares from it, stuff like that."
"The car was cut in half," Donovan said.
Nicholas Marchese was charged with six counts, including vehicular homicide. The district attorney said his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.
The district attorney also said his office has witnesses who claim Marchese was swerving on the wrong side of the road.
