MANHATTAN — A Pennsylvania woman accused of driving drunk and slamming her car into two construction workers near Times Square last year was convicted the Manhattan District Attorney's office said Monday.
Lataya Carter, 28, was driving westbound on 51st Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, when she struck a parked garbage truck and two workers who had been loading it, at 2:10 a.m, according to a release issued by the office of District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
The victims were pinned between the truck and Carter's car in the February 2012 accident, the D.A. said.
Though bystanders were able to free the first worker, the second worker's leg was crushed and had to be amputated from the knee down.
Carter, who is from Tobyhanna, P.A., had a blood alcohol content of .19 percent, investigators found at the time, much higher than the .08 legal limit.
“Driving is a privilege and the law requires us to do so responsibly,”said the D.A. in a press release.
“There are too many pedestrian-involved vehicle collisions in Manhattan, each one forever altering the victim’s life. Drunk driving continues to threaten the safety of everyone on our streets, and this case demonstrates the harmful outcomes that can result from engaging in this irresponsible behavior,” said Vance, Jr.
Carter was found guilty of vehicular assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, according to the D.A.
She is expected to be sentenced on July 9, 2013.
