Victims’ families, lawmakers call out for stiffer hit-and-run laws

Bicyclists and families who’ve rallied recently for new legislation that would stiffen penalties statewide for hit-and-run drivers have seen their efforts hit a roadblock — again.

Although one bill passed in the Assembly last week, it stalled in the Senate. The Senate passed a different bill to address the issue last month, but that one died in the Assembly. The legislature is now out of session until January. The only chance for the bill to pass sooner than that would be if a special session were held in December.

A similar effort last year failed to garner enough steam to become law.

The Assembly measure, sponsored by assemblymen Anthony Palumbo and Edward Hennessy, creates the offense of aggravated leaving scene of an accident without reporting and ups sentencing times from the current two and one-third to seven years in prison to a stiffer five to 15.

For local families who’ve had their lives torn apart by hit-and-run drivers, proposed tougher penalties can’t come soon enough.

Riverhead mother Linda Hartmann said she was devastated to learn that the alleged hit-and-run driver, Jacqueline Celentano, who struck her son Aaron in Flanders last year on Mother’s Day, leaving him critically injured, pleaded guilty last week before Suffolk County Criminal Court Judge Fernando Camacho — and could face only a misdemeanor charge and community service.

“She could get a slap on the wrist, and we got a slap on the face,” she said. She said she hoped Celentano could work in a program for victims of such accidents.

Celentano is due back in court on July 23.

Jamesport resident Jennifer Callaghan, whose husband Jim was killed in January on Route 25 while jogging in dense fog in Laurel, pointed to new evidence in March that he may have been struck by a hit-and-run driver before being hit by two other cars.

Callaghan said that paint was found on her husband’s clothing that did not match the paint on the two cars that did stop after the accident. The paint, she said, is metallic blue, and indicates that there was a third driver who struck her husband and fled the scene.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and the Southold Town Police Department said in a release that they are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the driver of the vehicle that left the scene. See story.

“I feel very strongly about this legislation,” Callaghan said. “If you hit someone, anyone, it is your responsibility as a human being to stop and help. Those who flee the scene should be punished to the fullest — you have injured or killed someone. In my opinion, 15 years still isn’t enough but it is far better than the current policy.”

Riverhead Police are also looking for the driver of the vehicle that struck and killed pedestrian Kristina Tfelt, a 26-year-old mother, as she crossed Route 58 last July 16. The driver crashed the vehicle, which was reported stolen that evening, and then fled on foot. See story. 

Members of the Long Island Cyclists and Runners Together for Safety & Solidarity group, called out for action this week on the group’s Facebook page.

“Many have died and we must make this bill stronger for them and their memories,” the group wrote.

In January, 2013, after Brookhaven resident Scott Wayte was killed by a hit-and-run driver outside Cliff’s Rendezvous in Riverhead where he was celebrating his 50th birthday in December 2012, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota called for tougher penalties for those who flee the scene of an accident that results in death or serious injury. See story.

The driver, Joseph D. Plummer, had been drinking, Spota said, and set out to concoct a scheme to hide his crime, Spota said.

Drivers who don’t stop, he said, make it impossible to help the victim and to determine if they were driving drunk or on drugs, therefore allowing for more serious charges.

Plummer pleaded guilty last June to one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving a death also and was sentenced to two to six years.

“This is an epidemic,” Spota said last year. “We need immediate legislative action.”