An alleged drunk driver who was driving on a suspended license hit a divider on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and a passenger was left in critical condition after the high-speed crash, police said. Rogelio Mendoza Hernandez, 25, of Queens, was heading east on the BQE when he lost control near the Flushing Avenue exit in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at roughly 4:45 a.m.
He had two female passengers in the vehicle when he veered into a metal crash cushion and struck the right median wall, police said. A 22-year-old woman in the front passenger seat suffered severe chest trauma and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. A second woman in the back seat, also 22, suffered cuts to her head and was taken to Bellevue in stable condition. Mendoza Hernandez was arrested at the scene and charged with DWI, vehicular assault, reckless endangerment, and aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle. He was not hurt in the crash.
What this Brooklyn DWI case shows
Driving on a suspended or revoked license while allegedly intoxicated is charged as aggravated unlicensed operation, a serious offense that rides alongside the DWI. Add a serious injury to a passenger and the case becomes felony vehicular assault, with real state-prison exposure. Speed and loss of control on a highway are the kinds of facts prosecutors lean on hardest.
Even a case with these facts turns on provable details: the basis for the stop or the accident investigation, the chemical testing, and the injury evidence. A Brooklyn DWI lawyer who has prosecuted drunk driving and DUI cases in Kings County knows what the People need to prove and where the weak points usually are.
This write-up is drawn from public news reports at the time and is preserved here for general information only. A charge is an accusation, not proof of guilt, and every person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case, and nothing here is legal advice.