– friends start petition against criminal charges
The young driver from Queens, who survived the horrific Long Island crash that killed four youths with Guyanese connections, has been released from hospital but authorities in New York have indicated that they are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, before determining whether any criminal charges will be laid against him.
According to US media reports Joseph Beer, 17, was released from Winthrop University Hospital on Tuesday night, but there has been no sign of anyone at his family’s home in Richmond Hill.
While authorities may be waiting on the toxicology results, which may take weeks, friends of Beer have galvanized support for a petition they plan to hand over to authorities requesting that no criminal charges be laid against him, as he has already suffered enough, The petition claims that Beer has severe memory loss and does not know his relatives and this coupled with the guilt that his friends were killed, is sufficient punishment.
Early Monday morning 17-year-old Beer, who received the T2012 Subaru Impreza recently from his parents for graduating early from high school, ran off a stretch of a Long Island highway and into a tree splitting the car into pieces. Those who died were Peter Anthony, Chris Khan, Neil Rajaba and Darian Ramnarine — all of them 18.
“The investigation is going to determine not just if alcohol and drugs played a part in this, but also the speed that the car was travelling,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice was quoted as saying by the nbcnewyork.com news report.
The report said State Police said Beer shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place since he only had a learner’s permit, and according to DMV regulations, should not have been driving between 9 pm and 5 am without a parent, guardian or driving instructor who was over 21 years old.
Meanwhile CBS 2 has reported that sources revealed Beer has admitted the group was smoking marijuana before the crash.
According to that report, Rice said because Beer was driving a Subaru, her office has also contacted the car company. “To determine if the vehicle had a black box from which data about the vehicle’s speed can be downloaded,” Rice said.
She said that, right now, no criminal charges have been filed.
Meanwhile, an uncle of one of the victims said he felt sorry for the teenager.
“He’s going to live knowing he was driving that car and four of his friends died, and that’s not easy to live with,” said Jack Kanhai in the report.
