Malverne Woman Gets Nine Years For Hitting Road Workers, Driving On Crack

A Queens judge handed down a nine-year sentence Friday to a Malverne woman, who admitted to speeding and driving under the influence of cocaine when she hit two construction workers with her car.

Yolanda Silvera, 29, of Malverne, pleaded guilty last month to first degree assault. According to police reports, Silvera, who does not hold a valid license, was driving a 2002 Nissan on Aug. 13, 2009 through Springfield Gardens at approximately sixty miles an hour while arguing with David Kruger, a passenger in the car. As she approached the intersection of Rockaway Boulevard and 150th Street around 10:40 p.m. she failed to slow down, even though other cars were stopped at the light, and  veered right into the barrier leading up to the marked construction zone.

That's when police say she struck workers Michael Hudson, 36, and Robert Keller, 35. Officials say the force of the impact sent one of the men flying over the car’s hood. When police arrived at the scene, they observed the front end of the Nissan smashed, the windows blown out and bloodstains on the trunk and rear passenger door. Silvera was later arrested and made statements to the police that she had smoked crack cocaine prior to the accident.

Both men sustained serious injuries and were transported to a local Queens hospital. Hudson sustained facial trauma and injuries to his lower extremities that required the amputation of his lower left leg. Keller, who also sustained injuries to his lower extremities, has undergone multiple surgeries since the incident.

Silvera entered her guilty plea on Feb. 23, before Queens Supreme Court Justice Steven W. Paynter, who sentenced her on March 11 to nine years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision. Her passenger, Kruger, 40, of Bellmore, pleaded guilty to seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance (cocaine), a Class A misdemeanor, last year and is expected to be sentenced on March 21.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, “The defendant’s decision to get behind the wheel of a vehicle while impaired by drugs has forever changed her life and the lives of the two men she struck – one of whom suffered the amputation of a leg and the other who has undergone multiple surgeries and must use a cane to walk. Reckless behavior such as that exhibited by the defendant can neither be tolerated nor go unpunished, as evidenced by today’s sentence.”